Final Exam Project

Billy's World

The Feature

1."Billy started skipping classes in middle school. He recalls sharing a joint with friends as he strolled around Fulmore Middle School. By seventh grade, he'd miss school for weeks at a time. When he missed enough school, he'd get suspended. By the time he returned, he'd fallen further behind, making him feel lost, leading to more absences."

To me as a reader, this small passage shows a part of Billy's past that he is not proud of. Reading this and then reading on in the section, you can tell that Billy's brother is really making a mistake by following in his brother's footsteps. The writer really showed the negativity of dropping out by writing this passage about Billy's bad habits in school.

2.'Oh, my God," Charlie, the mother of Billy's daughter, said one day in the fall. "In three months, I'll be 20. But I don't feel 20. I feel ... 13."

This lead made me picture Charlie, sitting helplessly at home with the baby not allowed to go out and do anything.

3."Billy waits inside a secure visiting room, tables surrounded by painted cinder blocks. He holds his head in his hands."

These two sentences to me are used to signify that Billy is locked up in jail on Christmas, the few lines before this were explaining the conditions of the jail, and how some new correctional officers have graduated. After talking about that it moves into talking about Billy's whereabouts.



Headlines
Struggling on parole

Main Verb:Struggling
Grammatical Subject: Parole

Adjusting to life at home and as an adult, Billy tries to fulfill the items on an ambitious to-do list.

Main Verb:Adjusting
Grammatical Subject: life
I chose this particular headline because I found the verb in this one fast while looking through the sections.



Photojournalism


"In July, Billy spends time with then 15-month-old Aaliyah, named after the singer who died in a plane crash in 2001."

This picture has the qualities to be considered good photojournalism, the picture seems to be telling a story of Billy, the father spending time with his daughter,the photo is candid and not posed,the photo frame is kind of visually appealing, and it has a caption.



Design

In the web edition, there are more pictures, and it has video which to me is more appealing. However, I like how the printed edition is written all in one and not broken up into different pages like the web edition. The web edition isn't really put in any specific style or design.I didn't really like the printed edition better than the web edition because the internet is fast and always ready.

Final Exam Part One

How is Billy's World a news piece?

1.
8 of 10
Studies show that, at the time of their release, more than eight in 10 prisoners are certain it will be easy to stay out of prison in the future and steer free of crime. The Youth Commission's re-arrest rate after a year is about 56 percent.

100
There are more than 100 occupations in Texas for which an applicant can be denied a license to work if he has a criminal record.
— 2007 Texas Public Police Foundation study

2.
Timeliness: "Lancaster lays out the prosecutor's offer: If Billy pleads no contest, he'll be sentenced to 45 days in jail. But because Travis County jails are overcrowded, inmates get two days of credit for every one served. Billy's month in jail gives him more than enough time served."

This excerpt from the story, made me as a reader realize the significance of days in jail, and how you can use previous time that you served as current time too.

Impact:"Schools have an incentive to drop no-show students: They drag grades and test scores down. "It's not fair to the teachers who keep giving them zeros and then get blamed for it because their class averages sink," says Sammy Seijas, Travis' dropout intervention specialist."

This excerpt can have an impact on myself and other high school students, because many students choose to skip class, ruining others opportunities.

Oddity:"Billy's mother says he began stealing at an age when many kids are learning to read."That was when he figured out bad attention was better than none at all," Ruth Evans says. "It's never stopped after that."

This excerpt was a little odd to me because I didn't realize that kids started stealing at such a young age.

Conflict:"On the way to a counseling session, Billy gripes about how his brother and stepfather have been fighting. He admits to smoking pot, and reminisces about the good old days — no responsibilities, coming and going as he pleased — before heading in to the appointment."

This excerpt is about Billy's step-father and brother fighting.

Human Interest:"Charlie and Billy knew each other from middle school, but she never gave him much thought. Until one day when he was over at her dad's house visiting her brother and she did a double-take: He was pretty good-looking, especially his green eyes."

This made me very interested, because I thought it was cute.

3.
"I can't afford a baby sitter; I'm just stuck at home," Charlie says one November morning, sitting in her living room with her mother while Aaliyah stumped around the house and watched TV. "I want a job. I don't want to be dependent on anybody."

This quote is good because it shows the struggle of being a teenage mother.

Sample Question: "What do you do all day?"

Newspaper Design

The Package!

"A house of the Lord"

The picture: Is of the Church

The Body:Tells about the Church, and where they're building it.












Modular Design!

"Brother of man fatally shot sorry for injuring deputy"

The Picture: Is of his parents, crying because he died.

The body: Tells the story of Francisco Pablo, and what happened.












Infographic!

"Can you hear me now?"

The Picture: Is a graph.

The body:Is about cell phones.