Proust Questionnaire

What is your most marked characteristic?
An exceptional capacity for empathy.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Kindness and compassion.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Kindness and compassion, and confidence.

What do you most value in your friends?
Honesty. I would rather have friends who tell me like it is than friends who only say nice things.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I can never say no. I feel an obligation to everyone.

What is your favorite occupation?
Reading.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A quiet life, doing only things that make me happy and the world a better place.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
To live a life devoid of meaning.

In which country would you like to live?
I would rather be a citizen of the world, claiming allegiance to no country in particular.

Who are your favorite writers?
Salinger and Vonnegut.

Who are your favorite poets?
T.S. Eliot and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Holden Caulfield.

Who is your favorite heroine of fiction?
Lucy Pevensie and Charlotte.

Who are your favorite composers?
Beethoven and Mozart.

Who are your favorite painters?
Degas and Georgia O’Keeffe.

What are your favorite names?
Anything unique or old.

What is it that you most dislike?
The cruelty of humankind.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Making people feel safe.

How would you like to die?
Knowing that I have left a positive impact on the world.

What is your current state of mind?
Simultaneous bliss and panic

What is your motto?
Just be kind. You never know who is going through what at any moment in time. 

USA TODAY - Nov. 4

November 4, 2014

            On the front page, the story on immigration uses italics to denote television show titles, AP style is quotation marks. Again, in the George Bush story, the paper uses italics to denote the title of his book, which should also be in quotation marks. Since, it occurs three times, it may be a USA TODAY style choice.

            Widows were wide-spread on pages 2 and 3. There was a missing period in the endnote for the story on the top of page 2. On page 3 in the story about laundry ‘pods,’ I deleted the word “very” from the lead paragraph, journalists try to avoid “very.” The magazine title “Pediatrics” should have been in quotation marks instead of italics, according to AP style.

            On page 5, the story about the president, uses “today” in the lead, it should be replaced by the day of the week, according to AP style. In the small plane crash brief, I rearranged to the lead to read: “A small plane crashed on approach to the island of Grand Bahama and all nine people on board were killed, the government of the Bahamas said.” The reason for rearranging it was that what happened is more important than who said it, so that information should come first in the lead.

            The use of art on page 6 for the Berlin Wall and the George Bush jump is excellent. It really draws readers into the story and makes them more interesting to read. The entire paper would benefit from using more pictures on every page more often. 

USA TODAY - Oct. 28

October 28, 2014

            On the front page, the story about Election Day, there is a widow in the second column. Also, “3%” should be written “three percent.” In the assisted suicide story, percent should also be written out on the two occasions it occurs and “on” should be eliminated before the date in the last paragraph. The sky diving story on page 2 uses “5-11” to denote height; AP style would be “5-foot-11.”

            On page 4, a lot of the same problems they have been having were still present. Not spelling out percent, leaving “on” before dates and widows were all present. Perhaps these are all part of USA TODAY’s style, but they don’t follow AP and I couldn’t find a USA TODAY style guide online.

            The “State-by-State briefs have several AP style errors. In Alaska, “e-mail” should be “email.” In Illinois, “6%” should be “six percent.” In Indiana, it should say “10 percent” and “eight percent.” In Montana and Vermont, percent should be spelled out. Nebraska needs to eliminate “on” before the date. In West Virginia, “9%” should read “nine percent.” 

USA TODAY - Oct. 21

October 21, 2014

            On the front page I rewrote the lead for “Fed ends an era of easy money” to say: “Despite stock market volatility and global economic troubles, the Federal Reserve upgraded its view of the U.S. economy Wednesday as it ended bond purchases that have supported growth since the 2008 financial crisis.” My rewrite puts the time element closer to the verb and eliminates use of “on” before the date. The graphic in the bottom left corner is misleading in today’s issue. It appears from looking at the graphic that pirate was the most popular costume in 2005, while witch is the most popular costume in 2014, however, the graph is actually meant to represent how many people are actually planning to buy costumes this year compared to how many planned to do so in 2005. This graphic could have been designed better so it won’t have the potential to mislead readers.

            On page three in the “What’s Happening Online” sidebar, I deleted “Defiant” from the teaser “Defiant Ebola nurse rejects state of Maine’s quarantine rules.” The whole teaser seemed to be evoking an opinion about the nurse, and newspapers should be objective even in online feature teasers. Also in the Halloween snow story, there was a widow that should be eliminated. The news update insert about Ebola in the nurse story worked very well to provide more information in the same context.

            On page 6, there is a story about WV elections and the location given for the story is Washington—I was unable to verify how they come up with those locations, I thought it should be the location which is being discussed, but perhaps they are looking at it as news from Washington, rather than West Virginia. I guess that would be something for the editors to decide, however, the comparable story next to it on the page (also about Senate elections in Georgia) lists Atlanta as the location. In the story, it refers to West Virginia as being part of the South, and I looked it up, and West Virginia is actually in the North-Central region of the country.

            Page 7 has a widow in almost every story. Obviously, widows are not a big deal to USA TODAY, but they look sloppy and most newspapers try to avoid them. Also, the headline for the top story has more than three spaces after the first line. The cutline for the photo of the Uruguay President uses “last Sunday,” I deleted the “last.” Then in the brief at the bottom of the page about Russia’s cargo delivery to the space station they use the numeral 3 where it should have been written out.

USA TODAY - Oct. 14

October 14, 2014

            The front page is very well-designed today, it draws readers into the stories through the use of color and art. The “Voices” article on page two, “Meeting Brad Pitt a red carpet thrill” should have a comma after “Pitt.” Also, the use of “last week” in the lead paragraph and photo cutline does not follow AP style. It should be the specific day of the week, if less than seven days ago, and if not, it should be the specific date. There is also a widow in the last column that needs eliminated. In the story on Pope Francis, I rewrote the lead to say: “Pope Francis, beatifying Pope Paul VI who implemented the Second Vatican Council’s vast changes, called on the church Sunday to adapt to “changing conditions of society.” The rewrite of the lead makes it much easier for readers to follow.

            On page 3, the Ebola story has a widow in the last column. In the Supreme Court story “1%” should be written as “one percent” according to AP style. In the vasectomies brief, the numerals are fine but percent should be spelled out. In the “What’s Happening Online” sidebar, I deleted “Scary!” from the first teaser, it is unnecessary and over-the-top for a newspaper. I also deleted “best” in the teaser “10 best ways to improve your credit score.” How do they know they are the best?

            On page 6, the story “Legal drugs that kill,” the caption in a small column is again difficult to read and breaks up the body copy. There is also a widow in the last column that needs to go. On page 7 in the story about Mexican crime, I question the use of the term “alarming” in the lead paragraph. How did the reporter know it was alarming?

            On page 8, there were two widows, one of which could have been easily avoided. However, the use of the entire page to feature one story made for a much more readable and aesthetically pleasing page than normal. The feature Q&A box in the center of the larger story was also a nice addition, giving more information without being too copy heavy.

            The cutline for the photo accompanying the article “Tech giants, women want more than frozen eggs” on page 11 doesn’t make any sense. The story doesn’t explain what “A Girls Who Code” is or what it means or even what is happening in the photo, “the Facebook campus” is also not mentioned in the story. 

USA TODAY - Oct. 7

October 7, 2014

The art with the front page story of the missing college student would normally be too stylized for a story of that level of seriousness, but because the photo they had to work with is poor quality (I am assuming provided by her family) it does work in this situation. There is also a widow in the second column of the story that should have been eliminated.

            On the second page the story about the children of Ebola victims was very powerful and unique, I applaud the paper for seeking out a unique story amid all the Ebola hype. The photo accompanying the story was well-chosen as well. It has the right level of emotion and fits the story well. The hurricane story on page 3, uses “this afternoon or this evening” in the lead and “this morning” later in the story. AP style requires the date or day of the week.

            On the fourth page, I found that most all of the political stories contained the percent sign (%) rather than the word “percent” written out. AP style requires that it be written out, because it occurs throughout the stories, it may be that it is one of USA TODAY’s unique style choices. On page 6 in the story “Authorities put ‘fresh eyes’ on cases” the numeral 3 is used when it should be spelled out: three.

            On page 8, the headline “Calm down about Ebola already” has more than three spaces at the end of the third line. Also, in the same story, second paragraph, “here in the United States” I deleted “here.” 

USA TODAY - Sept. 30

September 30, 2014

The top story on the front, above the fold is highly relevant. The Supreme Court not deciding on gay marriage is kind of a big deal. The infographic/map was nice art, but it really overshadows the one photo of a couple being married, which adds more of the human element and is more interesting to readers. Also, all of the copy on this particular front page doesn’t draw readers in or make them want to pick up the paper. People like art and photos, not tons of daunting text to read. The designer should have maybe opted to jump more of the story and make the photo of the couple larger.

            The top story on page 3 uses “allegedly” in the headline which we were told, in class, was unnecessary. In the “What’s Happening Online” sidebar, I deleted “, ever” from the teaser “Airfare Expert: The two days you should never, ever fly” for redundancy. I also deleted an exclamation point from a teaser in this section, because newspapers rarely use exclamation points and it is consistent with all of the other teasers to have no end punctuation.

            Putting the “State-by-State briefs on a color page, seemed like a waste of color. It would have been nice to have color on a page with actual photos instead of just blue clipart and to emphasize the titles. The briefs page doesn’t really lend itself well to color, and as a reader it is more important to me that photos are in color than clipart, even the accompanying color page only has two photos appearing in color.

            Page 6 is very well designed, it has plenty of white space and doesn’t feel as crowded as most of the other pages. The whole paper would be more reader-friendly if all of the page designers took some tips from this one. The lead to the domestic violence in women’s soccer story was cliché. Almost all stories about domestic violence lead off with statistics; seeing a fresh approach would have made readers more likely to finish the story.

            The “Your Say” section on page 7 is a really good way to get more opinions of the public than just the couple of people interviewed for a story. It is presented well, and seems to get a lot of positive feedback from readers. In the Obama/Ebola story there was a widow at the top of one of the columns. Widows are small problems, but they make the copy difficult to read and they look like a design flaw, it would be nice if USA TODAY was more adamant about eliminating them, but it really is a design choice. That same story has a caption under the photo of Obama that falls in the middle of two columns of body copy and creates awkward white space. It would much more readable to have the caption span the length of the bottom of the photo rather than dissect the copy. Overall, it would have been preferential to readers to have more photos in this entire edition. It was very copy-heavy and daunting to pick up. 

USA TODAY - Sept. 23

September 23, 2014

            The photo of Gabby Giffords and her husband is very powerful and the lead to the story is moving as well and its placement on the page is appropriate.  I did delete “on” in front of the date in the caption of the photo, due to AP style rules, but I am beginning to think it may be a stylistic choice the publication is making since it has occurred so many times.

            The India Prime Minister story on page 2, had a widow in the top right corner of the story. In the “Kurds say Turkey not doing enough to stop Islamic State” I deleted the word “here” from the sentence, “He, like many in this crowd of thousands here, is itching for a fight.” It is unnecessary and awkward. Also, the photo captions in tiny columns are difficult to read. They would do better to make room under the photos always instead of putting the caption into a column.

            The Gabby Giffords story continues on page 6, and it begins with a widow, which would be best avoided. I deleted “on” before the date in two of the captions. I also questioned the use of “reassuring” in the caption with her mother, how did they know it was reassuring? In the briefs, there is also a widow in the last column.

USA TODAY - Sept. 16

September 16, 2014

The feature headline, “Syria strikes may be joint effort” is missing a comma after “strikes.” Also, it isn’t clear which story that headline applies to. Although there is a line separating the headline from the other stories on the page, it is a little deceiving to have a headline that spans the entire front page, and it only relate to one column on the far right side. The lead of the Syria story should have been rearranged to put the attribution at the end because what was said is more important than who said it. The photo featured with the Climate Change article seemed to focus on Leonard Dicaprio, which had no relation to the content of the story whatsoever. The editor could have chosen a crowd photo that didn’t feature a celebrity.

            I understand now that the “Voices” first-hand account of newsworthy experiences from USA Today editors is a featured item in each edition, but it would still be more appropriate on the Opinions page rather than the second page of news. The period is still missing in the endnote as well. The “In Brief” is also confusing in this edition as the briefs in the first one were.

            On page 3, the story about a Pa. shooting uses the word “here” to refer to the location of the shooting. USA Today is a national newspaper, and just because the story is from Pa. doesn’t mean that readers are in Pa. Specificity is important in news writing, and it would be clearer to readers across the nation if they just used the name of the town again at that point. In the “What’s Happening Online” sidebar, the teaser “Puppy rapists gets five years in prison” is a sensational headline and could be seen as making a joke of the situation. It would be worth discussing with other editors and getting some second opinions on the wording of that teaser.

            Design problems on page 5 included a widow in the insurance story at the top left of the page, and the headline “Israel’s Arab citizens alienated in wake of war” has too many spaces at the end of the first line. The briefs had several AP errors in the copy. In the missing student brief, I deleted the word “being” from the phrase, “was being sought” because it was unnecessary to get the point across. Also, in the phrase, “driving at a high rate of speed that caused police…” I deleted “rate of” and “that” and changed “caused” to “causing.” In the California laws brief I changed, “to drive for free or reduced rates” to “to drive for free or at reduced rates,” because it makes more sense. Then the brief about a ship getting stuck near the Statue of Liberty, I took out “on” before the date, as per AP style.

            On page 6, in the caption for the photo above the fold, I deleted “on” before the date, again as per AP style. In the headline “Republicans’ fake birth control promises,” there are more than three spaces at the end of the first line. The white space at the top of the page gives plenty of breathing room, considering all of the copy filling the rest of it. 

USA TODAY - Sept. 9

September 9, 2014

The headline for the Alibaba story is cluttered and the headline overlapped was difficult to read and it seemed a little flashy for a news story. The headlines on the front page split up infinitives and verbs across lines, which is generally avoided if possible. In the Newsline headline for the Money section, “Consumers open up their wallets,” I deleted the word “up” because of redundancy. In the headline below the fold, “Senate has a secret book of rules,” I deleted “a” because articles are generally left out of headlines unless necessary, and it was not necessary in this situation.

            On the second page of the News section, the article titled “Domestic violence from boy next door,” was a personal account of domestic violence from one of the paper’s editors. While the story was newsworthy and powerful, I thought it would be better suited to the Opinions page. In the caption for the photo accompanying that article, I replaced “in a briefing” with “during a briefing” because “in” was used again later in the sentence. Also, in the note at the end of the article, it should end with a period consistent with the other endnotes in the paper. In the continuation of the Alibaba story, IPO should be spelled out on first reference. There was also some awkward white space at the bottom of the page.

            On page 3 of News, the headline “USA heads toward diabetes crisis” left more than three spaces at the end of the second line. Also, in the lead of the same story, I questioned whether or not the use of “fatter and older” was politically correct. It would definitely be worth bringing up to other editors. I also found the “Nation in Brief” section to be difficult to read and follow. It could possibly benefit from a redesign.

            In the headline “Wis. Governor just taking it one race at a time,” I deleted the word “just” to eliminate any possible editorializing. The “World in Brief” section, like the “Nation in Brief” section was difficult to read and to follow. The unrelated photo dissecting the copy is a distraction and confuses readers.

Assignment 2: Micheal Brown Article

I found the Micheal Brown article to be very insensitive. Although the family was interviewed and presumably knew that what they said would be included in the article, I still thought there was phrasing and framing by the author which was inappropriate to the situation.

Most of the sections that I edited were just places where I felt the wording could have been a little more sensitive to the situation.