Newspaper Critique

Publication________________________________________________

School ___________________________________________________

Address__________________________________________________

Award____________________________________________________
 Pennsylvania School Press Association
Annual Evaluation Service

The purpose

The Pennsylvania School Press Association sponsors publication evaluations as a service to student journalists and their advisers. Through this
evaluation, PSPA provides guidance, constructive suggestions, and commendations to help each publication achieve excellence.

The process

All participants are eligible for recognition as follows: Gold Award, Silver Award, and Bronze Award. All publications receiving Gold Award are
automatically entered into a second round of judging to determine All State Awards. All-state awards are the highest awards bestowed by PSPA
and are announced. at its annual convention in November.

The PSPA judges are chosen from a pool of professional journalists and out-of-state certified journalism educators. These judges score
each publication holistically, applying the criteria of the appropriate PSPA Publication Scoring Guide. These scoring guides, available at
http://paschoolpress.org/ are designed to maximize feedback from the judge.

While PSPA strives to promote good journalism, judges are instructed to approach each publication on its own terms, according to its editorial
philosophy. If your staff has chosen to explore new journalistic territory, it is important that you explain in the comments you enclose with the
entry. Also, be aware the junior high and middle school publications are held to age-appropriate standards.

A GOLD AWARD publication consistently demonstrates mastery of journalistic standards in content, writing, design, and photography.
The publication need not be perfect or exhibit state-of-the-art trends, but it does achieve excellence in each area.

A SILVER AWARD publication demonstrates adherence to the basic principles of journalism, but does not exhibit excellence in EVERY aspect
of the publication.

A BRONZE AWARD publication demonstrates an incomplete or inconsistent mastery of journalistic concepts. This publication needs
substantial work on content, writing, design, and/or photography. It may rely too much on journalistic jargon or gimmicks and/or may not take a
sufficiently journalistic approach. It may also exhibit careless editing, libel, poor taste, or “yellow journalism."
 Content/Coverage

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard Commendations for Content/Coverage
Consistently covers total school population without
overemphasizing glamour activities.
Maintains appropriate balance (including hard
news, features, human interest, personality profiles,
sports, reviews, and other appropriate and
interesting content).
Localizes relevant out-of-school issues and events.

Covers municipal, state, national and international

events that relate to students.
Reports information in a timely fashion.

Emphasizes advance coverage.

Publishes frequently enough to provide meaningful

coverage and connect with readers.
Emphasizes student perspective.

Targets school community as the primary

audience.

Maintains balance of standard stories, in-depth

coverage and briefs. Recommendations for
Covers major topics with multiple elements. Content/Coverage
Includes informative sidebars, polls and
infographics regularly.
Sports coverage includes seasonal sports, features
and opinion.
Encourages contributions from non-staff
individuals.
Content/Coverage

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard
Avoids gossip or advice columns.

Publishes editorial policy at least once a semester.

Includes unsigned staff editorials in every edition.

Includes columns, reader forums and other

opinion pieces.
Exhibits willingness to address sensitive or
controversial topics when necessary.
Advertising, if included, is appropriate to
audience and consistent with editorial policy.
Avoids content that is an invasion of privacy.

Avoids content promoting disruptive behavior or

illegal activity.
Gold Silver Bronze
Rating for Content/Coverage
 Writing

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard Commendations for Writing
Avoids passive voice and imprecise diction.

Is neither wordy nor redundant.

Is highly readable, exhibiting clear focus and

organization.

NEWS ARTICLES:
Reflect thorough and accurate research,

Include appropriate and necessary context,

background.
Avoid editorializing.

Emphasize context and consequences of events.

Exhibit balanced and objective reporting, including

interviews of all principles.
Appropriately attribute both direct and indirect
quotations.
Uses quotations liberally without stating the obvious
or repeating information.
Exhibit adequate development with rich details.

Avoid plagarism and/or copyright violations.

ARTICLE LEADS:

Exhibit originality.

Attract reader.
 Standard Above At Below
Standard Standard Standard Recommendations for Writing
Establish main focus of story and an appropriate
tone.
Avoid use of school name, nickname, or mascot.

Use strong, precise diction.

OPINION/COLUMN WRITERS:

Support assertions with concrete evidence and

thorough research.
Show fairness.

Convey a positive, constructive tone.

Provide leadership by suggesting thoughtful

solutions to problems.

SP0RTS WRITERS:

Avoid cheerleading and other editorial

commentary, except in personal columns.
Avoid predictions or making excuses for losing.

Provide analysis, rather than mere rehashing of

games.

FEATURE WRITERS:

Show, don't tell.

Choose tone and style to fit subject.

Gold Silver Bronze

Rating for Writing
Editing

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard Commendations for Editing
Ensures accuracy.

Ensures clean, concise diction, syntax.

Shows consistent use of stylebook.

Avoids invasion of privacy.

Excludes unsuitable language.

Excludes unnecessary content.

Shows attention to standard grammar,

punctuation and spelling.
Avoids stereotyping, gender bias.

Maintains suitable paragraph length.

Ensures that full name and title are used on first

reference to people.
Avoids synonyms for “said.”

HEADLINES:

Create interest.

Pull readers into story.

Summarize and advertise leads.

Editing

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard Recommendations for Editing
Contain strong, active verbs.

Avoid triteness and generalities.

Avoid overuse of school name, nickname and

initials.
Use present or future tense.

Avoid splitting grammatical units.

Avoid abbreviations and acronyms.

Include appropriate subheads.

Use consistent style of capitalization and

punctuation

CAPTIONS:

Avoid stating the obvious.

Provide brief interesting stories.

Identify all recognizable people by full name.

Avoid cute statements, gag lines, inside jokes.

Use appropriate tenses, standard grammar,

spelling and punctuation.
Editing

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard
Credit photographers.

EDITED COPY:

Avoids potentially libelous or obscene content.

Avoids plagiarism and copyright violations.

Gold Silver Bronze

Rating for Editing
Design

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard Commendations for Design
Matches dominant element to news value
on every page.
Anchors photo essays with a dominant
photo.
Uses design elements (boxes, lines, borders,
screens, white space and color, etc.)
effectively.
Balances text, graphics, art and
photography.
Maintains consistent column width and
spacing between elements.
Links related elements between facing
pages.
Uses space effectively on double page
layouts.
Limits number of fonts, avoiding fonts that
are hard to read.
Maintains consistency in external margins,
with one element touching each external
margin per spread.
Avoids reverse type and dark screens.

Organizes sections effectively.

Uses effective folio lines.

Uses effectively designed and displayed

ads.
Design

Standard Above At Below

Standard Standard Standard Recommendations for Design
Avoids tombstones and gutters as well as
long columns of type, hand lettering, and
pixelated type or art.
Avoids excessive or confusing jumps.

Uses innovative and trend-setting designs

that respect basic concepts of visual
presentation.
THE FRONT PAGE:

Reflects news values.

Emphasizes major story while showcasing

inside stories.
Makes effective use of the fold.

Includes name and address of school as

well as date, volume and number in
nameplate.
THE OPINION PAGE:

Uses distinct, consistent design.

Excludes advertising.

Contains a masthead with reduced version

of the nameplate as well as staff and adviser
names, brief editorial policy, ad rates,
membership, and policies.
Gold Silver Bronze
Rating for Design
Special Considerations
In this section, judges consider the newspaper as a Judge’s Comments
total effort, including any special circumstances and
any especially outstanding work. Judges may
consider, for example, the experience, training, and
size of the staff, the budget, availability of
equipment, issues of prior review. Extra credit may
be given for outstanding work— photography,
effective image editing, advertising design,
innovative graphics and/or cartooning, for example.

Rating Summary

Content/Coverage ____________________

Writing ____________________

Editing ____________________

Design ____________________

Special Considerations ____________________

OVERALL RATING ____________________ ________________________________________

Judge
Judge