Katie

Story Idea Journal- The Boston Globe Sports Section, Monday. March 10 to Friday, March 14


 * Monday**

1. Walsh, NFL are close to an agreement 2. Bruins give effort, don't get victory 3. Cold Shoulder 4. A small town, a moving tale 5. Thoughts run deep 6. Hawks swoop in 7. They're late bloomers

1) Matt Walsh, a former videoman for the Patriots, was angry with the way things ended for him. He reportedly has damaging information regarding the videotapes the Patriots had of opponents' practices.  After reading this article, I proposed the idea of a sports editorial answering the following question: Do you think watching a videotape of your opponent before a game is cheating?  We could have both the yes and no sides of the argument.

5) Doc Rivers, Celtics head coach, comments on how the current Celtics roster is the best he has ever had.  Raiders teams such as Boys Hockey and Girls Basketball have really stepped up this year from tough seasons in the past.  For the Bradford, we could write an article about the progression of some of our teams over not just one season, but multiple seasons.


 * Tuesday**

1. Beckett's back is still hurting 2. Trade thoughts kept at arms length 3. Happy 50th for Celtics 4. Pucks stop here 5. A Minuteman's hour 6. Bucking the trend 7. Rockets soar to 19th straight

2) For the Red Sox, both Lester and Ellsbury were being considered for trade, but ultimatly stayed on the Sox. Though there is no trading in high school sports, the teams are still different every year as seniors leave and freshman arrive.  We could cover the new players, the lost players, and who is moving up from JV to varsity in our sports section.

7) The Globe does not just cover the Boston teams, but others as well. We could do the same, mentioning the biggest competition for teams, as well as former Bay State Conference champions.


 * Wednesday**

1. Moss case closed 2. Bruins stay as cold as ice 3. Duffy's a point guard who handles well 4. Never better 5. Title time 6. Snow job 7. Pierce at the top of his game

6) Bode Miller, who had a chance to win the World Cup downhill title, expressed his anger when the race was canceled due to overnight snow and fog. We could write an article about how it is determined if any of the WHS games are canceled, rather than postponed, and what the weather has to be like for outdoor sports.

7) Kevin Garnett, a candidate for MVP this year, thinks his teamate Paul Pierce deserves. This article is synonomous to our AOM articles.  In our articles, we should make sure we have a quote from a team member commenting on wha it is like to play with the AOM.


 * Thursday**

1. Fortunately, bounce didn't go thier way 2. In terms of popularity, Casey runs unoppossed 3. Try anything 4. Parting ways 5. Slow response 6. Crusaders lose 7. Celtics beat Sonics 8. A revelation for Minuteman

1) Dan Shaughnessy talks about what would of happened if Kevin Durant ended up on the Celtics. For WHS, many students who play sports such as lacrosse or soccer may have the potential to be even better at a sport like track.  We could make a chart of people who had trouble deciding what sport to participate in, and why they chose the sport they did.

8) This article could also be synonomous to out AOM, but it gave me the idea that we could give more attention to coaches in outr sports section, and maybe do a coach of a season, but not a coach of the month, because coaches recieve many awards as well as athletes


 * Friday**

1. Bruins lose to Lightening 2. Why the celtics are so good 3. Great to be green 4. His old self 5. On top of the world 6. Bubble bursting 7. Among chosen few

2) This story gives the inside scoop on the Celtics, and it gave me the idea that maybe we can feature one of our teams every month, and get all the inside scoop on practices, specific games, and maybe how the team prepares themselves for every game. We could also include things like team dinners, pre game talks by the coach, and more.

6) This article is all about how the UMass lost to Charlotte by seventeen points.  Maybe we could cover a specific game that a team lost, and get quotes from team members commenting on why they thought they lost and what they can improve for the next game.











Katie Norwood Critique In terms of the balance of the Bradford, I think all are different sections account for most of the schools events. Also, I think we should try to cover clubs more often, as there are so many of them, always doing different things around the school. This doesn’t need a full article, but maybe just a sidebar. Otherwise, I think all the voices of the school are heard through the variety of sections. Also, when writing editorials, I think we do a good job of always including both sides of the issue. In terms of writing, I think we are doing well. Leads always pull people into the paper, paragraphing has improved immensely, and headlines again pull people into the paper. I think we should use active verbs more often to make articles even more interesting and intriguing. Overall, I think our photos are usually good, and graphics throughout the paper been really interesting, especially since we have a couple of artists in the class who can easily draw a graphic for an article lacking a picture. I think we should start uploading more than one picture for each article, at least two, so we have something to fill extra space in the paper if there is any, and so we have a choice of which photo to use. Also, if both photos/graphics are good, we could start uploading two photos for a few articles that are well explained through pictures. As for the production of the paper, I think we have a few things to improve on. Layout always becomes a really long process since not all articles and photos get in on time, which leaves most of the class sitting around waiting for the paper to come out. I think during free time like this, the staff could be going around the school to search for story ideas for the next issue, while also making sure they will be timely. Also, I think deadlines for interviews should be a bit later, since very few of the staff has time to get interviews in a week or less. Another solution is to start story ideas for the next issue even earlier, so people have time to set up interviews, instead of scattering at the last minute to email their interviewee instead of getting a much more effective interview face to face. As for the layout of the paper, I think we have added a lot of effective sidebars and sections to the paper to make it much more interesting. Our pictures and articles are at a good balance, there are no longer any overwhelming long articles that take up half a page. The centerfold is a great addition, addressing issues around the school, along with some interesting statistics and graphics.