A Royal Pain
The Monte Vista Royal Page (my high school's newspaper) is, simply stated, terrible.
Note: All quotes are reproduced verbatim; '[sic]' notation is implied but omitted. If you're upset that I'm making fun of your work, don't write crappy articles and publish them anymore.
The standards I set for a high school newspaper are not unreasonably high. However, they undoubtedly include not writing my first sentence something like: "The standards I set fora high school, newspaper isn't high."
Yet, upon each release of The Royal Page, I find errors akin to these in each and every article. I'm not asking for perfect grammar or textbook sentence structure. But there are certain things that should be given for such public written work.
First off, I'm a huge fan of the insightful political and social commentary you can find in The Royal Page. According to one writer, "Heeding warnings may be a good thing." Another writes, "In fact, marketing plans are often directed at the teen market." These people have a career in stating the obvious. And, in case you're the type who likes to dodge responsibility, according to one writer "the lack of regular sleep is not to laziness or irresponsibility on the teenager's part. Par6t of the reason is because of biological sleep tendencies, or 'circadian rhythms.'" My opinion is that before you start propagating half-truths around the school, you learn about what you're talking about.
The most frequent error I find in the Royal Page is misuse of commas. Commas are tricky, sure, but there's a general rule that will tend to get you pretty far: say a sentence aloud, and when you pause, put a comma. Take for example the inappropriately titled "Grease Lightnin'" article about our drama department's recent production. The first line begins "Ariel Norcross junior, and David Rich junior, the two star actors in Grease...." Now, unfortunately I don't happen to know David Rich all that well, but I do happen to know that neither of Ariel's parents are named Ariel Norcross. In another article on the same page, a member of a club is quoted as having said "The last fundraiser we had, was a health fundraiser." Tossing in commas on a whim sure makes your writing look sophisticated. Wait no it makes, your writing, confusing and hard to, read.
Along that line, that wasn't the only misquoted source I found in the paper. An article on the recent controversy surrounding gay marriage quotes Elizabeth Shulte from Socialist Worker Online: "A committee of the California State Assembly voted...to approve legislature...." The real quote does in fact say "legislation." Now, at least for me, quotes from respectable sources that don't make any sense send up a 'red flag' in my mind, and I like to check to make sure that I'm not writing nonsense.
Speaking of nonsense, The Royal Page is chock full of it. One writer uses "television," "TV," "t.v.," and "T.V" once, and only once apiece in one article. A fragment posing as a sentence from an article on cell phones states, simply, "If paging devices interfere with the educational process or classroom environment." An article on the not-so-popular movie The Alamo describes the historic battle at the "spanish mission" between "the Santa Anna" and Texian rebels (Texian is correct). The article arguing, as far as I can tell, for ending discrimination against homosexuals reads, "Homosexual people are different from straight people, but they are still people. They are just like us." And, a few lines down, "They are the same as we are." So they're the same as us, just different. Ohhh, that makes sense. Times sike.
I'm not even going into tense, spelling, and conjugation errors at a length. There are enough quotes like "If paging devices...is visible," "high school athletes who've skiped college," and "participants have been practicing these passed weeks," to fill up another entry.
Note: All quotes are reproduced verbatim; '[sic]' notation is implied but omitted. If you're upset that I'm making fun of your work, don't write crappy articles and publish them anymore.
The standards I set for a high school newspaper are not unreasonably high. However, they undoubtedly include not writing my first sentence something like: "The standards I set fora high school, newspaper isn't high."
Yet, upon each release of The Royal Page, I find errors akin to these in each and every article. I'm not asking for perfect grammar or textbook sentence structure. But there are certain things that should be given for such public written work.
First off, I'm a huge fan of the insightful political and social commentary you can find in The Royal Page. According to one writer, "Heeding warnings may be a good thing." Another writes, "In fact, marketing plans are often directed at the teen market." These people have a career in stating the obvious. And, in case you're the type who likes to dodge responsibility, according to one writer "the lack of regular sleep is not to laziness or irresponsibility on the teenager's part. Par6t of the reason is because of biological sleep tendencies, or 'circadian rhythms.'" My opinion is that before you start propagating half-truths around the school, you learn about what you're talking about.
The most frequent error I find in the Royal Page is misuse of commas. Commas are tricky, sure, but there's a general rule that will tend to get you pretty far: say a sentence aloud, and when you pause, put a comma. Take for example the inappropriately titled "Grease Lightnin'" article about our drama department's recent production. The first line begins "Ariel Norcross junior, and David Rich junior, the two star actors in Grease...." Now, unfortunately I don't happen to know David Rich all that well, but I do happen to know that neither of Ariel's parents are named Ariel Norcross. In another article on the same page, a member of a club is quoted as having said "The last fundraiser we had, was a health fundraiser." Tossing in commas on a whim sure makes your writing look sophisticated. Wait no it makes, your writing, confusing and hard to, read.
Along that line, that wasn't the only misquoted source I found in the paper. An article on the recent controversy surrounding gay marriage quotes Elizabeth Shulte from Socialist Worker Online: "A committee of the California State Assembly voted...to approve legislature...." The real quote does in fact say "legislation." Now, at least for me, quotes from respectable sources that don't make any sense send up a 'red flag' in my mind, and I like to check to make sure that I'm not writing nonsense.
Speaking of nonsense, The Royal Page is chock full of it. One writer uses "television," "TV," "t.v.," and "T.V" once, and only once apiece in one article. A fragment posing as a sentence from an article on cell phones states, simply, "If paging devices interfere with the educational process or classroom environment." An article on the not-so-popular movie The Alamo describes the historic battle at the "spanish mission" between "the Santa Anna" and Texian rebels (Texian is correct). The article arguing, as far as I can tell, for ending discrimination against homosexuals reads, "Homosexual people are different from straight people, but they are still people. They are just like us." And, a few lines down, "They are the same as we are." So they're the same as us, just different. Ohhh, that makes sense. Times sike.
I'm not even going into tense, spelling, and conjugation errors at a length. There are enough quotes like "If paging devices...is visible," "high school athletes who've skiped college," and "participants have been practicing these passed weeks," to fill up another entry.