More class blog posts that I liked
Patrick Temple-West posted twice last week about a "60 Minutes" piece on the Millennial generation in the work force. The first post, 60 Minutes discovers young professionals, did a nice job of adding context. I particularly liked his link to a Wall Street Journal article mentioned on the show (blaming TV’s Mr. Rogers for today’s attitudes) and to a CBS News/Associated Press article about how baby boomers aren’t planning to leave the work force soon. Three days later, Patrick followed up with a post about articles quoting two workplace experts (one from the Moose Jaw Daily Times, believe it or not) about Millennials. In the second post, he notes that neither of the experts cites much real evidence. I wonder if Patrick could do some more research and find some more authoritative work on the subject? I Googled "millennials workplace" and found some interesting stuff. Or, how about a roundup of blog reaction to the "60 Minutes" piece?
Kelsey Blackwell, Ava Tabb and Caroline Kim all presented their interview transcripts well (see Kelsey’s, Ava’s and Caroline’s). Note that all of them changed typography for the questions and answers. Kelsey’s and Caroline’s might have been made even more readable if, like Ava, they had included a blank line between questions and answers. I also like Caroline’s roundup of blog and other reaction to this week’s news about inflation. I especially like the link to the Paper Economy blog’s very useful analysis of the inflation news.
Laura Kaliebe has a nice touch with headlines; for instance, "Taking the football field…sans pompoms" and "Honk if you drive a big rig: Trucking industry, facing shortage, turns to women." What I like about them is that they are cleverly worded, while also being clearly descriptive of the content. That’s especially true of the second one — it shows you can be clever *and* have a headline that will be understood by search engines. The first one meets the clever standard, but would not work so well for search engines. Suppose she’d written: "Taking the football field…sans pompoms: Texas’ only female high school gridiron coach"?
Eric Kroh did something cool — link from his blog to a story he covered in the Chicago newsroom. If the timing were to work out right, it would be great to link the other way around as well.
Whitney McFerron had a good "get" for her audio interview: the communications director for the Illinois ACLU. It was a really timely interview because of recent issues involving the First Amendment at Morton West High School. My one complaint: the transcript should have linked to Whitney’s earlier post about Morton West. Remember that your job as a blogger is to help people understand what’s happening in the news. Linking to your own posts is one of the best ways to do that.
I’m going to reiterate: Proofread your posts! I found quite a few spelling or grammar mistakes. In class on Monday, I’m going to recommend that you consider using DreamWeaver as your text editor. Among other reasons, DreamWeaver has built-in spellcheck capabilities.