The Feather Online receives Gold Medal critique

Every year the Columbia Scholastic Press Association critiques thousands of high school and college newspapers for their annual competition. For the fifth year in a row, The Feather Online received a Gold Medalist in its yearly CSPA critique. Although receiving this high honor, the campus paper did not receive the highest All-Columbia Honors.

To receive All-Columbian Honors, The Feather had to score at least 380 points in essentials, 280 points in verbal, and 280 visual. The Feather scores were as follows:

Essentials: 382/400

Verbal: 232/300

Visual: 288/300 

The Feather received enough points to be eligible for All-Columbian honors in two out of the three categories. Overall, editing of grammar and punctuation in articles seemed to be The Feather’s greatest weakness. Despite having trouble with grammatical errors, The Feather was commended for its broad range of articles and topics.

“The Feather Online is filled with life and variety,” CSPA judge said (name not provided). “The staff provides a wonderful array of newsworthy topics to enlighten readers and get them thinking about matters of consequence.

“Make sure that everyone on staff not only has access to a style book but really uses it,” CSPA judge continued. “Inaccurate punctuation, subject/verb disagreement and labels instead of headlines are areas that need attention.”

Senior Editor Nick LeBlanc, ’17, was happy to receive the CSPA critique. He was proud of the score that the staff received despite the amount of newcomers to the journalism class. LeBlanc is excited to see how the staff will continue to grow in the rest of the year.

“I thought it was good for The Feather to receive the critique,” LeBlanc said. “While we did not achieve the highest tier of judgment, I was still proud of what we were able to do despite having a young team. For The Feather this year, we knew it would be a rebuilding year so I was not extremely disappointed.”

One of The Feather’s greatest areas of strength is in the media department. Video Editor Jarrod Markarian, ’17, is proud of the work his video team has been doing. He is happy to see how far they have come throughout the year.

“I am very happy with the amount of content and the quality of content that our video team has been posting,” Markarian said. “We had a lot of new people at the beginning of the year and we have come super far. The thing I am most proud of so far this year is our suicide PSA.”

The Feather also received a critique from the NSPA. The staff has all received a copy of both assessments and have recognized areas that they need to work on individually. The Feather will be traveling to New York City for the annual CSPA convention, March 11. In NYC, The Feather will be receiving either a Silver or Gold Crown. The 2015-16 staff earned a Gold Crown and All-Columbian honors.

To read an article on the NSPA’s critique of The Feather check out, The Feather Online changes focal point, seeks community engagement

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @phillip11499 and via email: Phillip Christopher