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Here is the link to my features page design.Simrundeep Kaur features page

Here is my headline page design assignment.Simrundeep Kaur front page

LEAD #1

Original: Chutney, a delicious new Pakistani and Indian restaurant, is located on 3352 Mowry Avenue.

Weaknesses: Don’t start out review by giving location of place. You can add it, but not in the lead. And to be perfectly honest it’s kind of boring, though the location is important it doesn’t exactly spark much interest yet.

New: Chutney tastefully brings together the rich flavors of two different countries, India and Pakistan.

Strengths: This lead, like the original, tells the reader that they will be reading about a newly opened restaurant. However, by not mentioning the location right away you give the readers a chance to absorb the atmosphere of the place before they find out where it is.

LEAD #2:

Original: Have you searched all over the department stores for that perfect prom dress and still have not found anything that you like… here are some new suggestions that might help sweep you off your feet.

Weaknesses: It’s not really good to start a story with a question. Also, “suggestions that might help sweep you off your feet” is very cliché and it’s usually best to try and avoid those.

New: Searching through department store after department store for that perfect prom dress can get quite exasperating. In order to save you a lengthy experience, here are some suggestions that might help.

Strengths: No question, your stating what you want to talk about not questioning your readers. Also no cliché.  Interesting and to the point.

LEAD #3:

Original: The Academy Awards ceremony is March 7.

Weaknesses: This is such a boring first sentence. People who care about the awards would already know they would be happening on March 7, however if you want to mention it then make it sound more exciting.

New: Lights, red carpet, cameras and deafening sounds all come together on the most magical and glamorous night in Hollywood, the 82^nd Academy Awards ceremony will be on March 7.

Strengths: Not as boring, adds a bit of sparkle to the sentence. Better than original, but could be better. Makes it sound interesting.

LEAD #4:

Original: Not everyone wants to go to prom. Prom can be very stressful.

Weaknesses: There’s nothing really bad about this lead, but it’s a bit choppy and could flow better.

New: Prom night sparks excitement in many students, a night of dancing and just having a good time with friends. However it can also be quite stressful.

Strengths: Not too much better, but a little bit more interesting.

SACRAMENTO – California’s dire and ongoing budget predicament is raising a tough – and touchy – question about the state’s finances, one that some at the Capitol do not want discussed: Is California bankrupt?

Well, a semester of journalism has gone by. It was pretty fun, but kind of hard at the same time. I liked how for practically each issue we waited until the week before the paper came out to start working on and turning in our articles.
I have to say, the reason I took journalism in the first place was to just have a chill class. It’s pretty chill for the most part, but definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. First off, I didn’t know we would have to edit our articles so many times before being printed. And secondly I didn’t know how hard it would be to actually get stories to write about. I’ve written stuff for all sections except, so I’ve gotten a little taste of all the kinds of stories that go in each section of the paper.
So far this year in journalism has been an interesting and enlightening one. I have to say I kind of like being a reporter more than being an editor because you get to do more field work instead of like paper/office work type stuff – for lack of better comparison. You’re more involved I guess, you get to talk to people. Or maybe that’s just me.
Anyways, for the second semester I plan to keep up with assignments, most definitely beat reports (although, to admit, Administration is kind of boring). I also want to try and write more stories. Other than that, I still want to have fun; after all it is my last semester of high school.

My beat is Administration. When I asked the people in my beat about the paper, they said they like the upcoming events part. They are excited about the spirit week stuff thats going to come up. As for story ideas, they said articles about events and such are surely an interest to the students. For improvements and other ideas they said to get back to them a little later.

I watched a video news cast from Tri-Central High School. The intro. was pretty weird, but kind of interesting. The anchor (Cole Smith) talked about how deciding about college is an important first step to the beginning of the rest of your life. I like the way they compared life if you had gone to college, and life if you didn’t go to college. It was meant to be a little sarcastic and the guest (Haydon Buck) did a good job of protraying the two possible futures. Overall, the video was pretty good.

Because I could not figure out how to put my images and descriptions directly onto this blog, I have added a link to the blogroll on the left, to my assignment.

In “Oakland solar firm hits desert swarm,” George Avalos interviewed Keely Wachs, a spokeswoman for BrightSource, and Barbara Boyle, a western regional representative of the Sierra Club. Some of the questions that I think that the reporter, Avalos, asked Wachs are why the project, to build a solar plant in the Broadwell Dry Lake area of the Mojave Desert, was stopped. He could have asked her what would be impacted if BrightSource were to have gone through with the plans. Barbara Boyle was asked pretty much the same thing. And both of them seemed to reply that the environment would not allow for a building of a solar plant. It would be too risky. As for extra information, Avalos probably asked about why the plans were made in the first place, and what they thought oh the whole project.