By Danielle Valliere
Journalism camp is here, which means that critiques are, too.
The expert Flint Hills Publications Workshop staff conducts these constructive sessions. But for some reason, the word critique can instill fear in the best of us. Perhaps it’s the fact that they can be harsh. Perhaps it’s the sharp pronunciation of the word. Perhaps it’s the knowledge that one’s publication was somewhat subpar.
Whatever their reasons, FHPW students who have not yet had their critiques will find their fear was in vain.
Notre Dame de Sion’s “Le Flambeau” yearbook staff walked into the Union Forum Theatre happily. Eagerly awaiting their critique, the girls circled on the stage. Excitement was in the air as Pete LeBlanc approached them.
LeBlanc flipped through “Le Flambeau” and offered advice for more than 30 minutes.
Although LeBlanc threw out “this looks like a yearbook from 1970” and the term “hokey” a few times, he did it kindly. He asked the students about their goals for next year, which evoked an enthusiastic response.
That’s what is so fantastic about critiques: students get excited to jump in and improve their publications. This occurs in the hope that, next year, their critiques will be more positive.
About an hour after the Kapaun Mt. Carmel Paladin news magazine critique, I stepped into the elevator, which stopped on the floor below.
One of our co-design editors, Sean Doyle, boarded with a slightly manic facial expression.
“I just finished changing the entire layout,” he said, in a voice that sounded as though he had just ran a marathon.
In a single hour, he had processed and produced the changes that instructor Jill Chittum had suggested for our beloved Paladin.
Danielle Valliere is a senior at Kapaun Mt. Carmel and a student in the advanced writing class at the Flint Hills Publication Workshop.
Woo! Go Danielle!
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