Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Breaking News: Street Sweeps Hurt

Hi everyone. I'm still out of town (though this week in a different town), so this week's update is a little different than usual.

After plagiarism showed up in the local college paper, I started watching other college papers to see what I could find there. So far I haven't found much in the way of plagiarism, but I've found plenty of the bad college writing that keeps this site alive.

I subscribed to the email edition of The Lantern from Ohio State so I could stay current. Today's commentary and comics center around the lead stories from April 21 to June 1 (the current issue).

Ohio State University OSU Lantern college newspaper
[mirror if above image is slow]

Sorry for the quality of scanning: I'm not able to scan on the usual scanner back home.

Some quotes from different articles:

"For those Ohio State students who have been experiencing chicken wing withdrawal this school year, fear not. The new Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar will open June 25 at its new location on the corner of Lane Avenue and North High Street." [This was the first sentence of a lead story]

"According to dictionary.com, a wiki is 'a collaborative Web site whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it.'" [arggg dictionary.com citations]
If there's anything that you noticed and would like to point out, feel free to do so in the comments.

33 Comments:

Blogger AHFB said...

Just wanted to add that there are two different blood drive stories that run as lead story in the same week.

Also, none of these headlines really give much indication of what the story is going to be about. Strickland greets students: isn't there something else he said or did that made it noteworthy?

3:40 AM  
Blogger AHFB said...

And if you're curious Article: Street Sweeps Hurt

3:49 AM  
Blogger John said...

nice work. i've been known to peruse the websites out there that are dedicated to lost photographs and lost grocery lists. ok, you're the only one that knows but you get my point.

10:24 AM  
Blogger Pic said...

The Lantern pretty much covers all of the hard hitting news like "what the senior gift is this year" and a "19yr olds take on the Simpsons 400th episode".

CAPTIVATING!

theshortend.blogspot.com

12:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just so you know, the article about the Stradley elevator is because that's the dorm where someone was killed on the elevator recently.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/contentbe/EPIC_shim.php?story=223381

I wouldn't exactly call that "routine maintenance."

12:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great comics.

And I'm sure we're all glad that OSU students learned something about Asian culture. The next step is learning to find Asia on a map.

1:24 PM  
Blogger AHFB said...

@anon/12:38

you've got me there.

1:49 PM  
Blogger Skullturf Q. Beavispants said...

Do you really think the Hempfest "marched" on, or did it just kind of amble?

2:13 PM  
Blogger Dave said...

This is a pretty sweet comic thingy idea. Like editing an English paper taken to the extreme. Hwaah.

4:54 PM  
Blogger mutalib saifuddin said...

just to ask you, in the US, is plagiarism common among student newsletters?

7:36 PM  
Blogger AHFB said...

@mutalib

common? depends what you mean. I mean it's more common than it should be in students' writing and newspapers, but I wouldn't say it's the norm.

7:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

10:36 PM  
Blogger Katherine said...

I feel like a sucker.
The blog cited above is nothing like this site.
And I was so excited to read more pathetic papers!
I am a sucker.
Oh well.

Keep up the headlines, those are silly and make me laugh.

12:53 AM  
Blogger AHFB said...

@Katherine
Yeah, the comment spam has been pretty bad. I woke up this morning to have ~50 entries with links similar to that.

On a sidenote, thanks for commenting as you go through reading the old entries :)

1:15 AM  
Blogger Amber Gilchrist said...

When I was in high school I was a page editor for a section that was supposed to cover hard hitting issues like anorexia and teen pregnancy and the people on the newspaper board were always trying to force me into doing pages on things like, "What people are going to wear to prom." Riveting.

1:33 AM  
Blogger rooz said...

Funny that you're focusing on college newspapers. I am a student at UC Irvine and absolutely hate my school paper. We haven't necessarily had problems with plagiarism, however, the news being reported on is not always factualy correct. Sources are not cited. And the paper always gets away with it. The worse that happens is a correction printed in 10pt font on the 36th page ofthe paper.

Either way I think it's crap. Just thought i'd share a student's point of view.

1:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about a POV from the other side?

I agree, plagiarism and factual errors and whatnot = bad.

But, I don't know how it is at your school, but on our school newspaper, the editors will change a bunch of things around - usually without asking the reporter first (such is the case during last minute production). They're only trying to enhance the clarity of the article, but sometimes, it turns into a giant game of telephone, so while something started out being factually correct, somewhere along the line, it'll be miscommunicated.
I'm not saying that the current standard is anywhere near what it should be, but I am saying: cut us a little bit of slack. A lot more work goes into it than most readers imagine.

2:19 AM  
Blogger Mandi said...

Interesting blog.

3:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

to anonymous with the other POV:

he wasn't knocking college reporters at all. editing snafus happen at all newspapers at all levels. the post was just pointing out the horrible headlines and/or complete lack of news sense. those are things that should be avoided from the start.

7:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oops, i should have clarified - my comment was mostly aimed at the person from UC Irvine (and everyone else who thinks that newspapers just magically put themselves together), not toward the blog owner at all - i totally agree about the headlines.
heh but every once in a while all the complaints add up and then you just kind of snap at a random moment.

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