Week 11

1. A fantastic piece on Nelson Mandela. What's compelling about this? The subject. A great read about a great man.

2. Ask a Fourth Grader. That's what ESPN magazine did in a Pittsburgh town. This is a cute fluff piece with a good angle. What do you think of this video? Is there a fun issue like this we could cover at MA? Are you smarter than a freshman? Smarter than a SF dweller? Smarter than Travis?

Edition 3 — Friday's in-class work

Typography powerpoint — please watch carefully as you will have to utilize this information in your own design project.

Typography assignment — due at the end of class

How to make an InDesign document

Some other hot tips about InDesign: palette 1, palette 2, palette 3

Edition 3 Editor Goals

Please post 3 goals you have for your section. Reflect on the last edition, areas where you have the most to improve and areas where you're doing great work. These goals can be design related, deadline related, or anything else. BUT, make sure these are measurable, outcome goals.

Headlines, please

Please post your article headlines here. Make it clear what your article is & what section it belongs in. Please post 3-4 options ranging from 30-50 characters in length. Remember, spaces count as characters.

Week 10 — Welcome November

1. Here's an interesting piece from the Wall Street Journal about alimony (payments one spouse makes to another after a divorce). This may seem like a somewhat adult article, but I was struck by the tone created by the interviews or lack thereof. hhhhmmm. I've talked about editorializing, but can you skew an article with a selective usage of quotes? Is there a bias present in this piece? If so, to what side oes it bend? If not, how does the writer maintain objectivity with such a heated topic?

2. An interesting read from Slate Magazine. It's about the Northwestern pilots that missed the airport, among other things, and about distracted driving. Where are we headed in an autopilot world? What do you think of the format of the argument? It draws heavily on news from other sources. Does that work well? Is there a smooth flow to the piece?

Share your insights, brilliance and wisdom.

Week 9

1. A great read from ESPN.com (Thanks, Andrew, for the suggestion). While this piece deals with broadcast journalism, there are lots of ideas and insights we can apply to our work as print journalists. What are your thoughts? What concrete items can we bring to the next edition of The Voice?

2. A great cartoon from The Economist. There's lots of news about Afghanistan these days, and lots of speculation about Obama's plan of action. While we don't have cartoons in our newspaper, what do you think of this one? Of cartoons in general? What do they offer than words cannot?

Share your insights and comments.

Week 8

Both from this week's Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal.

1. Making Ugly Betty Prettier: While I like the piece, what really drew my attention was the "then & now" graphic. It was expressed side-by-side in the printed paper, but is still effective up and down on the web. What areas of MA might we be able to do a then & now piece on?? Keep in mind that last year we covered the changing campus, the changing teachers and more. Try to think beyond the usual

2. The New Wild and Crazy Yankees: Yes, I am biased. I love the Yankees, but I liked this article because it's about sports but moves beyond a game wrap-up or personal profile. It looks at a team from another angle. What do you think? Does this angle work? Make you want to read on? Offer a new insight into the team?