The Trojan Times Review #4
March 7, 2005

That's right; it's once again time for our semi-monthly review of our illustrious school paper, The Trojan Times. And without further ado...

The first front page article, "Nick Canger catches Mr. PFHS title," is fine, except for the highlighted quote, which, considering its prominence, could probably have had its fatal error caught. I think by high school, knowing that "I'm" should be capitalized is basic, but apparently not in this case...

The second article, "SWAT team gets serious," was good, considering most students probably do not read newspapers outside of Current Events, and thus would not have known about this except for word of mouth. What I wish would have been included was the quote printed in The Spokesman-Review article that appears on the index page of PFU:

"We plan a lot for Post Falls High School because, in our mind, it's the place most likely something like this could take place."

This was said by Sergeant Pat Knight, referring to a Columbine-type incident. I think students deserve to know what local police think of us as a whole.

On the second page "Upcoming Scholarships" and "News Briefs" columns, I just love the outdated events and scholarship deadlines. The paper is dated March 7, and came out on March 7, yet there are dates listed for March 4 and February 28.

I sure want a free certificate for free lunch. Just thought you'd like to know that because you might want to know that.

"Big day for Iraq's people" is significant because it is actual news that affects the world, but the last sentence of the article confuses me. It reads:

"It seems that attacks their trademark because suicide bombing, car bombing and mortar shelling spaced are usual in Iraq, so we should be glad that we live in country where these things are not common day by day."

I can excuse the wording since the author of the article does not speak English as her first language. However, while the bulk of the article was written objectively and in third-person, like an actual news report, the last sentence crossed this line and as a result, the story ended in what was similar to a train wreck. It had little to do with the rest of the article.

Is it possible to be surprised and not surprised simultaneously? The sports articles are the most substantial in the entire paper. Well, then again, one article says that we live in a place called Post Fall ("Then Sandpoint dominated the second quarter by scoring 23 points to Post Fall's 12").

The guidelines for submitting to the editor should be clarified. First, what is meant by "submissions"? Full articles, or letters? While I can see how someone who wants a full article published would go through the trouble of typing it and submitting it on a floppy disk, not many would do so with a simple letter.

Regarding "Venue Wanted: Area teens cry out," there is a venue where we can go that is not as far away as Spokane- the Coeur d'Alene Teahouse. It features local bands many nights of the week, and the shows are all-ages. The author of the article is right in that there isn't a good venue in Post Falls, but the Teahouse is only ten or fifteen minutes away depending on where one lives.

I like "Too quick to judge," however, I doubt that the majority of the student body will seriously examine its message, and that is disappointing.

What's up with the cartoon at the top of Page Seven? The least the paper could do would be to give credit to the artist.

Speaking of Page Seven, why is it even in the paper? It's just ads and copy-and-pasted trivial facts. I understand that the paper has to have a certain number of pages, but more substance could have been added, I think. Perhaps the paper could start a classified ad service for students? Even that would be better than learning about ice cream.

Calling the improv team the "improve" team? Is that a hint?

In "Great Educators of PFHS," why is it ironic that Mr. Westlake meet is wife in high school (". . . his sophomore year where he ironically meet is wife today.")? I also think it was rather inappropriate to refer to him throughout the article by his first name instead of his last.

Thank goodness individuals didn't receive credit for copy-and-pasting minor things like horoscopes or recipies this time around. Good job on that one.

Did the author of "Phantom of the Opera causes thrills at the box office" even see the film? He refers to Carlotta as "Diva", and main character Raoul as "Rhoal." Besides the point, perhaps a more recent movie could have been reviewed. Is PotO even in theaters anymore?

Instead of reporting on the third round of the RAWK Final Four, why wasn't the actual final round covered? Was the deadline for submitting stories before it occurred? If so, fine, but if not, it should have been updated.

Finally, a grammar lesson for the staff of The Trojan Times. Pay attention, class!

Verb-subject agreement: "Person" is singular, as is "everyone" and "someone." Therefore, it is grammatically incorrect to write something like, "Everyone had their books with them," since we are writing about one person. It should be, "Everyone had his or her books with him or her." I know that this sounds redundant, but this can be fixed by shortening "his or her" with "his/her" or simply "his" or "her." Organizations, such as "Post Falls High School", "SWAT team", or "Diversity Club", are also singular, and should be referred to as "it," not "they."

Capitalization: Proper nouns, such as names or people or places, are always capitalized, as is the pronoun "I." Most acronyms, like "RAWK" and "CD" are capitalized.

Numbers: Numbers under 100 should be written out unless they are the first word in a sentence. For example, the sentence "Over a 2-year period of time officers must complete 40 hours of training in order to remain certified" should read, "Over a two-year period of time, officers must complete forty hours of training in order to remain certified." Exempt from this rule are numbers with decimals, but not percentages.

Punctuation: Statements end with a period (.). Questions end with a question mark (?). Commas (,) and semi-colons (;) are key when necessary. If there is a natural pause in a sentence, there probably should be a comma there. If a sentence includes more than one complete statment, a semi-colon, not a comma, is needed after the first statment. The best example of the importance of this is the difference between these two seemingly similar sentences, but comma placement is key:

The panda eats shoots and leaves. This means, obviously, that the panda eats shoots and leaves.
The panda eats, shoots, and leaves. This means, however, that the panda eats its food, shoots something, then leaves the area.

Possessives and Plurals: Plurals usually end with "s" or "es," except in the case of some animals, like "deer" or "moose," where the singular also serves as the plural. Non-possessive plurals do not need an apostrophe ('). For example, "I have ten cat's" is incorrect; it should be "I have ten cats." Possessives require an apostrophe. For example, "My cat's paw hurts" means that I have one cat and its paw hurts. If I were to write, "My cats' paws hurts," it means that I have more than one cat and their paws hurt. Putting the apostrophe after the "s" or "es" on a plural noun means that there is more than one of those nouns possessing something. In the case of names ending in "s" or "es," such as "James," the correct plural is "James's." Only in cases of historic names, such as "Jesus," can there not be an extra "s" after the apostrophe, but an extra "s" is still permitted. In the case of "it," "it's" means "it is," and is not possessive. The possessive form of "it" is "its." In the case of numbers, acronyms, and one-letter words, there should not be an apostrophe to indicate a plural unless the word or number only has one digit or letter. For example, "CD" has two letters, so its plural is "CDs." However, "A" as in a report card grade only has one letter, so it would be used like this: "I got two A's on my report card."

This is Vorfeed, signing off for this semi-month.