I choose to critique an article regarding Exoplanets located on The Edmonton Journal online. At first glance I noticed that the article does not contain any bullet points, subheads or lists. Instead, the article is several paragraphs of uninterrupted text. The numerous paragraphs help separate the text a bit, but not enough to be considered proper online format.Although the paragraphs are short, the story is not, and that is another problem when applying online editing skills. The story should be shorter for scan-ability and readability when using smaller viewing devices. The lead does a good job of summarizing what the article is about. There are no links (and there could have been numerous for a story like this: the Exoplanet Database, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia website, or even the top 10 most intriguing Extrasolar Planets are just a few.) However, the image provided works well with the article's context.
Overall, I wouldn't say that this story does a good job of following what has become expected in online articles. The block text, lack of links, and abundance of information would work much better for a print story.
Image by Dallas1200am on flickr
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