School Newspaper

Recently, school just released its first newspaper. It is a great job for a black and white middle school publishing, except, in my opinion, it is way too short and has a lot of junk.

First things first- this one is the first issue, so it has a letter from the editor and leadership announcements. I do not mind that. They say that they will take that away from the newspaper after this issue. Good. Now most of the stuff is out of order. Everything is bunched together, and that poses a huge problem. How do you find some item from another? I suggest them putting on an online version. In school we don't have too many web designers, so that is going to pose a large problem. Another one of my pet peeves is all the extras that are supposed to go in the Entertainment section or omitted altogether. This is not exactly what I consider as interesting. What gives newspapers its punch is how well the articles are written, and how many articles are written. To be concise, I will sum it up in two words- quantity and quality. Unfortunately, the paper has neither of these. Sure, you can put out an abridged version in everyone's hands, but that lacks the impression that many other newspapers have. Besides, the only way to get a reader to continue reading is to extend the article without boring them.

Also, there is that unsightly fashion section right smack in the middle of nowhere. That is not exactly interesting, as it is considered filler, or advertisements.  Besides, not a lot of people care about fashion, especially clothing, these days. *ahem* My point is that that section should not be too large, or too often. Who cares about what you are wearing? Who cares that you have the best smile in the school? All we care about is that we can get what we need to do done. Besides, only one half of the school *ahem* the females care about fashion. Sure, there is a technology section inside the newspaper, but I think that it should be longer and contain more information than than the fashion section. Besides, we are in Silicon Valley, not in the Platinum Triangle of the Los Angeles Basin.

National news was a great section. However, please get the spelling right. How are you able to spell Barack Obama wrong? He has been on the newspaper for so long, and you still cannot spell his name wrong. Even so, that would be considered the least of my problems. There was also that odd interview about two teachers. That would be considered good content. Also, the technology section was interesting, although it was not what we people in Silicon Valley were expecting. Considering that, think that this section should be drastically lengthened.

Sports, however, is the antithesis of the national news. We know about what the school team is doing. We know what the cross country group is running. We know the RBI of every single person on the softball team. Now you have to repeat that again? What a mess. Skateboarding is also completely redundant. Sure, we have a lot of skaters around here, but they do not deserve a whole section completely dedicated to them. They could have their own paper, if that is what they want.

I still think that the opinion and educational sections are missing. We should have a section of student complaints or something like that. Student works sounds a little bit too ambiguous. Besides, what if all the stuff that the students send in are fiction? Then how could we spark public outcry? It may take up two whole pages, but as far as I know, that is a really good use of paper.

Ask Annie was a great column. However, some of the questions were immature, and some of the other questions' answers were a little bit... let us just say... awkward. There could be some more questions, and there could be better answers. But for now, I say that this one of the good portions of the paper.

Horoscopes- NO, NO, NO!!!! Why would you want to have horoscopes on there? There are already enough sources for you to find out what is your horoscope. This is just a waste of paper. Let us replace this with something that is actually worth putting here. Every day, on the newspaper, there is a horoscope section. Every day, on the internet, there are daily sources of horoscopes. What we do not need is another source of that blab.

Educational section- This newspaper is considered cool in the school. What we need is the school to maintain this image and use it for the benefit of the student. The school is around 50 percent Asian, which is neither good nor bad. Some of the people inside the school think that the school newspaper is cool, but not the books themselves or the San Jose Merc, USA Today, or the San Francisco Chronicles. Therefore, we could have a section on education, to instill the values of education and some stuff into their heads. Maybe this will not work, and they will only want to look at the fashion section. Either way, this will be good for the newspaper.

Conclusion- This newspaper has had a great start, and I hope that this newspaper will live up to its standards, However, there are still things to be fixed, and there are a lot of things to change. Hopefully this newspaper will really good for the school, contributing to the general good, and [hopefully] this will be a good idea.