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ACP Winners2010 ACP Story of the Year Winners News Story First Place Second Place Third Place Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Feature Story First Place Second Place Third Place Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Sports Story First Place Second Place Third Place Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Editorial/Opinion First Place Second Place Third Place Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Diversity First Place Second Place Third Place Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Judges' comments Diversity Judge's overall comments: The breadth and depth of the reporting in these articles, and the quality of the writing, made choosing the winners a near-impossible task. These young journalists challenged authority and shined a light on their classmates struggle for independence. In several cases, students ventured off campus to tell stories of people in the surrounding community. The work demonstrated here could have been published in any number of professional newspapers and magazines. Every student on this list should be commended for tackling sensitive issues that required asking tough questions and exposing difficult truths. Congratulations to all! Editorial Judge's overall comments: In selecting the winners for this category, I took into consideration a number of factors. I reflected heavily on how the issues the authors wrote about uniquely and directly affected college students in general and specifically the campus at large, as well as any call to action that the article made. I think sometimes it’s easy to write about an issue, but to actively encourage others to take a stand or to change existing policies definitely got my attention. I also looked particularly at the research and facts and direct and indirect sources referenced in each article, and the fairness and sensitivity displayed toward the issues at hand. A succinct writing style and clear explanation of the subject matter were other attributes that caught my attention when judging these pieces. Sports 1st place 2nd place 3rd place HM: Joey Nowak, "Win like Flint," The State News HM: Cody Tucker, "Have you heard about our Morgan?", Wingspan HM: Vinnie Lopes, "Ball State athletics department nets record $800,000 for Saturday's Auburn game," The Ball State Daily News Feature 1st place The reporting was thorough, and the many quotations that helped to propel the story were properly attributed. The credibility of the already well-documented piece was further bolstered by independent confirming fact-checking by two other Daily Student reporters. The writing was compelling, well-organized, consistent in tone and flawless as to usage, spelling and style. The writer reached out nationwide, beyond her own experience, to introduce outside primary sources and statistical data that gave her article broad perspective. Since the article was a first-person account, it naturally demonstrated sensitivity to the subject issue, but moreover it reflected fairness throughout. This was the only entry among the 144 entered in the Feature category that received the highest marks possible in each of the contest’s four stated judging criteria. 2nd place Second, as a result of Ms. Crist’s dogged reporting, the article informed readers of the frustratingly confusing, complex patchwork of university, health and law-enforcement entities to which students who believe they might have been endangered can attempt to turn. The depth of Ms. Crist’s interviews with the involved representatives of those entities exposed the legal and other constraints that limit their options to act. The article may leave the reader who needs help puzzled as to what to do, but that seems to be the messy truth that’s the point of the story. Perhaps Ms. Crist’s telling of it will lead to clarity of efforts; her report of the situation puts into play such a hope regarding a life-or-death campus issue. 3rd place She interviews detractors to learn why they say what the do. She interviews current and former LPC students who belie the naysayers. She shows that for many students, LPC has been quite the opposite of Lost Potential, but instead a rare door to opportunity, often in preparing them, in one of its major roles, to move on successfully to four-year institutions. The impact of the article on its readers should be a mighty and welcome lift to the college’s self-concept that could leave a lasting impression. The article should be reproduced and handed out to LPC students for years to come. Ms. Cruz’s writing is nearly flawless. Her interviewees are well-selected, and their quotations, which build the story, are well-attributed. She introduces statistics; even more would have been welcome. When humorist James Thurber was a young reporter for the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, his gruff city editor told him how to write a story: Write a nice beginning, write the story, write a nice ending and then throw away the beginning and the ending. Ms. Cruz proves Thurber’s city editor wrong. Her lead and her ending form a clever, perfect circle. They speak for themselves, and this judge believes they are worth sharing. The lead: Honorable Mentions: Laura Lofgren’s article in Kent State University’s Fusion Magazine is a high-quality presentation of glimpses into in the life of a high-school senior who is HIV-positive. The article puts a human face on the condition. The young man featured is taking his medication, enjoying his participation in theater productions and planning for a future in theater in New York City. The article likely has two main impacts: First, it reminds Kent State students that although AIDS is much at bay, the disease and the virus that leads to it remain a life-threatening danger; this may result in prevention. Second, for those readers who have already learned they are HIV-positive, the article offers hope and a path to a relatively normal life with the optimistic young subject of the story as an example. Julie Robinson in Miami Dade College’s Miambiance presents a beautifully written, achingly revealing first-person account of the tragic results of incest on the writer and her sister. The article’s probable impact is that it will help other incest victims to confront and deal with their traumatic experiences and the results of those experiences and that the article will offer hope in the knowledge that a kindred spirit has survived. General Constructive Comments: Re-report from original sources. Let’s say you find a fact in a major daily newspaper that that newspaper attributed to an original source that is reasonably accessible to you. At a minimum, you double attribute the fact, saying its from such-and-such source via such-and-such newspaper. But if you can, re-report the fact yourself by going directly to the original source and attributing it just to the original source. College newspapers are in the front line of journalism, just as major dailies are, so don’t settle for second-hand if your are able to get it first-hand. One payoff could be that the major daily got it wrong and now you’ll be getting it right instead of repeating the mistake. Also you may serendipitously pick up additional useful information in the process, and develop a new source/contact to boot. If what you want to attribute to the big paper is the result of that paper’s investigative reporting, and you can’t get the information directly, that’s different; go ahead and attribute it to the big paper. Finally, it should go without saying that all quotations, direct and indirect, and all facts, except for those that are universally accepted as obvious, need to be attributed, yet attribution is widely missing in many of the entries. Avoid pejorative words that reveal bias on your part. Tell it straight with nouns and verbs, avoiding adverbs and adjectives when you can. Let the readers make the subjective judgments. Words encountered in this year’s Features entries that betrayed writers’ lack of objectivity included these: “Caved” instead of “decided.” “He said proudly” instead of “He said,” “brutally murdered” instead of “murdered.” When officials offer generalities as reasons for not disclosing information that you request, press for specifics. A fine article said a government agency denied access “because of privacy laws.” What privacy laws? Of what country? Press further. Counter with an open-records action. Seek help from the Student Press Law Center or the Society of Professional Journalists. Check for consistency. In one piece, for example, a statistic was given as applying to the 1930s in one place and to the 1920s in another. Don’t bury the lead. Even in a feature article, the reader shouldn’t have to wait until the middle of the second page to learn what the story is about. Work in a lead or “nutshell” sentence or paragraph up high. If you raise a question, answer it. In one entry, an attempted assassination was mentioned, with no indication as to whether it was successful. In another entry, the issue of a vote was raised, but the reader is never told the result. Read the article over to make sure it’s clear. Remember, you know all about this subject already; the reader doesn’t. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Does the article flow in a way that makes it easy to understand? Are any sentences or paragraphs out of place and need to be moved? Are sentences or facts repeated and need to be deleted? Double-check all figures, dates and names and look for wrong words that the spell-checker can’t flag, such as “hay day” for “heyday” or “discrete” for “discreet.” |
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ACPjobsNow powered by AfterCollege.com - Search hundreds of thousands of journalism and other job listings for recent and future grads. ACP/AfterCollege Job Resource Center... Contest DeadlinesYearbook Pacemaker - Jan. 17, 2012 Online Pacemaker - Feb. 15, 2012 Upcoming ConventionsACP Best of the Midwest - Feb. 10-12, 2012, Minneapolis ACP National College Journalism Convention - March 1-4, 2012, Seattle |