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19 // CLASSMATE BLOG CRITIQUE

 Currently, I am one of eight students in Southern Arkansas University's (SAU) 2025 "Reporting and Writing for the Mass Media" class. This class is somehow both solitary and cooperative in nature; while all of our work is done on our lonesome, we are exposed to each other's progress on a semiweekly basis. A lot of good work has gone into most of our blogs, but I wanted to highlight one in particular.

Madisyn Morphew is sophomore at SAU, majoring in mass communication as well as being a member of the Phi Mu Fraternity. She has an evident eye for styling as well, if the the presentation, layout, and content of her blog is anything to go by. Her website is undoubtedly one of the more appealing in the class.

(A poor screenshot of Morphew's blog)
Aesthetically, Morphew utilizes a monochromatic theme for her blog, intermingling the likes of various whites, grays, and blacks (with a neutral sepia on occasion). This makes her website feel very classy, and probably the most accurate as to what a newspaper would look like.

Layout-wise, all of her articles begin with an MLA style header. This is an odd format for this specific class since it is media focused, but is permissible and expectedly ingrained in most college students. She makes a conservative and apt use of variously sized subheadings in most, if not all, of her posts.

Typically only 1-2 photos are used, with the first being the thumbnail for that post and the second relating to whatever topic is being discussed. Personally, I do not mind this, as I feel too many photos can make articles feel very commercial and overstimulating.

In terms of content, Morphew is exceedingly thorough. Her writing is easy to follow without feeling leading, gratuitous, or rhetorical, all the while being digestible in decently sized paragraphs.

If I had to nitpick anything, I'd suggest the use of more links to increase credibility. These would not only act as useful citations for the reader, but makes each article more interactive overall. The omission of these does not detract from the work, but rather a suggestion to improve already exemplary work.

- C. Thomas Bailey

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