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David Kennedy
12-21-2008, 06:28 PM
So, while not "nature writing" per se, I've wanted to contribute something to this forum for a while now. This August, I enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in the photojournalism sequence (in another two years I'll have a master's).

This was my "final project" for my first class, "Fundamentals of Photojournalism." We were assigned to lay out our stories in Adobe InDesign and turn in PDF files. I was not happy with the layout I turned in for class last week, so I just finished re-working it (I'm now on winter break).

For best display of what the pages would look like side-by-side, especially in the case of pp. 2-3, you might switch Acrobat Reader to displaying "Two Up" in the View >Page Display menu, as I've shown how to do in this screen shot.

This is really only the beginning of what will be a long-term photographic essay on Wild Bird Rehabilitation in St. Louis, Mo. I plan on making several visits throughout the spring, summer, and fall and turning it into a multimedia piece with audio interviews and, possibly, some video. But for now, this is what I've got.

The PDF file is located at: http://www.david-kennedy.com/layouts/20081221_wbr.pdf

Thanks for looking!

Julie Kenward
12-21-2008, 07:12 PM
Nicely done! I really enjoyed reading about WBR and what they do. You write extremely well and kept my interest through the entire piece.

My one comment/suggestion is that I'm not fond of the three-column format - anything past two columns and I feel like I'm constantly having to readjust my focus down to the next line. (Blaming old age and bifocals here...) Your photos are wonderful with your words. I hope someday in my old age I get to have a job like this!

Lance Warley
12-22-2008, 09:08 AM
Congratulations on enrolling in the photojournalism Master's, David! You're at the beginning of a difficult but highly rewarding journey. I can see you have guts.

The article is great. I agree with Julie about going for two columns, rather than three.

Here's a grammar tip. You might as well hear it now, rather than when you receive a project back with a negative comment from an overzealous teacher. It's something called parallelism. That's a fancy name for a rule that tells you to state things in the same way.

For example, you say, "...is responsible for assessing each bird and to prescribe a method of care." It should read, ""...is responsible for assessing each bird and for prescribing a method of care." No biggie. Easy to implement.

I googled it. Here's a web site with more examples: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_parallel.html

I hope you keep posting your stuff here. I'd really like to help you as you pursue this degree, and I'm sure Julie feels the same way.

David Kennedy
12-22-2008, 01:56 PM
...Here's a grammar tip. You might as well hear it now, rather than when you receive a project back with a negative comment from an overzealous teacher. It's something called parallelism...

Lance,
Good catch! Not as embarrassing as a split infinitive or ending a sentence with a preposition, but not a good thing, either! Thanks for looking at it so closely. I meant to run it by some friends in the copy-editing sequence, but simply ran out of time.

Actually, they didn't pick on the writing too much, which was somewhat surprising. We were only supposed to write about 400 words and I turned in about twice that.

Both you and Julie mentioned the columns, so I'm going to revisit the layout and play with a two-column grid. One thing I should have mentioned is that the output paper size is A3, so I wonder if that changes your perception that it's one column too many?

Lance Warley
12-22-2008, 02:07 PM
I was thinking of a smaller size, like 8x10ish, so you may be right...I think the only way to really tell is to print some pages with 2 columns, then with 3, and see which appeals to you.

It basically becomes personal preference. It's also important to consider if it will be mostly read online, or hard copy, or both. I'm so used to online, I tend to forget about paper unless it's a book.