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.”