Public Editor
Comments on 10/22 issue of The Statesman
This week we are lucky to have a guest Public Editor. Juli Parrish, a professor in UMD's Writing Studies Department, offers these thoughts on the current issue of the paper.
I should acknowledge from the outset that I am not a journalist. I do not teach journalism. And it’s been almost twenty years since I wrote the column “Parrish the Thought� in my high school newspaper. I approached this week’s issue of The Statesman, then, as a reader who is fascinated by minutiae.
Scare Quotes: Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are
I was glad to see Emily Haavik’s article on Coming Out Week, but I thought that the scare quotes might actually belong around the word “support�: UMD is a top-ranking GLBT-friendly university, but only 10 people attend a panel discussion? Is this a potential story-within-the-story? Or is it the miscreants ripping down posters around campus (emphasized with quotes in two separate articles)? What’s the “real� story here?
Unfortunate Juxtapositions?
Are the juxtapositions of images and articles on pages 5 and 22 deliberate or accidental? I’m not sure, but I can’t help but notice that they both involve references to women and their bodies. The side-by-side positioning of the wedding ring advertisement with the continuation of the domestic violence article on page 5 gave me pause. But it was the later juxtaposition that shocked me; the unfortunate positioning of the right-hand photograph has actor Scott Mallace looking sideways at the bra-clad chest in the breast cancer photo. The article itself acknowledges the potential objectification of the breast image in question, and I’m not even going to get into the unfortunate euphemism that suggests itself when you consider the title of the play.
Want to Become Homeless? Then Attend This Lecture!
I appreciated David Buckner’s coverage of the panel presentation on homelessness, but I was stymied by the preview on the cover. I couldn’t reconcile the photo of the swanky new LSBE classroom with the title announcing a fight against homelessness. But it was the last phrase: “UMD students and faculty learn that becoming homeless is easier than they think� that really challenged me. This is the kind of ambiguity in headlines that you see on The Tonight Show.
Attention to Style is Desired
I don’t remember recommendations about using passive constructions from my own journalism days, but I would love to see writers working to punch up their sentences with active constructions. Not all passives are bad, of course; in Megan Buttler’s article on CAC, the people taking down posters aren’t known. Clearly, what’s important here is that the posters are being taken down, not who is doing it. But in a number of other places, writers could easily edit for punchier sentences. Let me offer a few examples:
Original: At the Bowling for Boobs event, a raffle prize drawing will take place and t-shirts will be sold for $10.
Revision: The Bowling for Boobs event will feature a raffle prize drawing and offer t-shirts for $10.
Sara Jochems’ article on the senatorial debate makes good use of active constructions: share the wealth.
“Quotations,� she said, “are a great way to end an article.�
I enjoyed the variety of news coverage in this issue, and it seemed to me that writers took note of Hatcher’s and Julin’s comments in earlier Public Editor posts about strengthening leads. Conclusions are an obvious next place to look; five of seven news articles ended with a quotation. “What,� I ask, “are some other options?�
-Juli Parrish