Parthenon Mistakes

Although the year has just begun, the Parthenon always struggles those first few weeks with the list of the new reporters. In class, we reviewed two articles displayed on the front page of the paper and had to find three of the main mistakes in the articles. The first article we looked at was "Marshall to face West Virginia in Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic". Right at the beginning of the story came a mistake. The reporter started his story with a time element. This is the number one issue in APA reporting and should never do that. The time element is supposed to go at the end of the sentence, not the beginning. The second big mistake was in the other article, "Women's basketball takes on no. 9 WVU in capital classic". In the lead of this article, it is a big too long and redundant. The lead is an introduction into the story that gives the reader of brief synopsis of what will be in the article so it shouldn't bore them. "captial classic" is also not in capitals but is in the other story so that should be fixed. The last big mistake was just an overall mix of gramatical errors. If a story has many grammar issues, that it is obviously not being read over before it is turned in. You should use your APA style book for reporting or it can cost many points.

Three Blog Sites

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/

This blog site is the one that caught my attention the most not only because it is sports related but because of the way it is outlined. There are a great amount of articles involving the top stories and happenings that have occurred in the last few weeks involving mostly football and basketball. I actually bookmarked the website so that I could come back to over the next few days.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/

The NY Times New York Region blog is an informative site but does not really provide me with too much useful information in that it discusses the happenings in the region of New York. I would use this more so if I lived in NYC but I still find some of the articles interesting and helpful.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

The third blog site is titled "News". I noticed that most of the articles involve Afghanistan and Israel. There are a few columns about several other countries but they all seem to follow a theme involving the riots in Israel and Government officials in other countries. The layout is the exact same as the other two blog sites but the criteria is much different.

Maureen Dowd Writing Style

Maureen Dowd has an extremely original style of writing when it come to being a columnist for the New York Times. I read the article, "A Gay Commander in Chief - Ready or Not?" a recent column from the December edition of the Times that raised the question "Is the country ready for a gay president?" Even before I read the article, I noticed that she raises a topic that is extremely sensitive and will most likely draw much public attention. This says to me as a reader that she isn't afraid to say what is on her mind. She starts her article with a sentence that sets the tone and you as the reader can tell what type of attitude the next few paragraphs will consist of. Dowd continues through her article as if she is telling a story from her life. This type of news is not what I am used to reading because it seems to be less informative but more so entertainment. She seems to be a more opinionated writer and enjoys touching on the topics of Government and Politicians. Dowd's stories come to a proper conclusion with a recap of the lead.