Judge’s Comments

Cheryl Pontius, judge • Division 2
Judge’s edited issue: Vol. 77 Issue 4

“Fun, fun paper to read. You write to your audience and include a wide array of coverage. Some design issues, but a real team effort to produce a good newspaper. I thought the September issue was actually your best. "

Positive comments:
• Nice front-page design, but tends to look the same from issue to issue. While “In Other News…” is very good, perhaps move it inside so you can alter front page from time to time.

• Nice teasers combined with photo to lure readers inside (don’t hide the page numbers). I like the one teaser on the top that gives more information about an inside story.

• Nice nameplate, but I would reduce size of school name, address, etc.

• Good percentage on screens – not too dark and easily read

• Excellent mix of stories – readers shouldn’t have to try very hard to find articles of interest

• Nice follow-up to story on dress code by interviewing members of the dress code committee (student, teacher, parent, administrator). I would suggest adding a reference to this page in the front-page story.

• Good packaging on the sewing story

• Nicely designed center spread with good art and stories. Lots of student input.

• Nice to see minor sports coverage (ice skating, gymnastics). A little surprised to see no major sports coverage.

• Features are well written – really liked the story about the male wanting to be in Winter Guard

• Good editorial on clogged halls – tells the problem, offers solutions. Good student poll on same issue. Nice to see letter to the editor. Face Off is done well – great to see a school superintendent participating
in this.

• Excellent entertainment guide that includes teachers and students

• Good job on cutouts – they can be difficult to do and most of yours are done well

• Good action photos – but don’t cut off feet (i.e., gymnastic story on page 8)

• Nice to see calendars of upcoming events

• Nice profile page (although Danger column is a
little too self-centered). Vote Davis is well done.

Constructive criticism comments:
• I would suggest using numbers for the issue and volume – people read numbers more easily than they do spelled-out versions

• Folios are a little large – they compete with top headline

• Inside pages are well designed and packaged. However, vary headlines – every headline looks the same from story to story, page to page. You have your top two-word head, then a summary deck. I would suggest using normal headline style on most inside pages – subject, action verb, object (possibly). Save the designed heads for a few packaged stories.

• Try to cut down on the amount of personal pronouns used in columns and features (when you finish an article, read back through it and circle all your personal pronouns. Then rewrite all those sentences eliminating the I’s, You’s, etc.).

• When you use a pull quote, don’t make it so wide that you end up with a very narrow column of text

• Change typeface or size on editorial to make it stand out. Your Staff Editorial box is too large and it leaves a lot of trapped white space.