College journalism: not as easy as it looks

Hey, let's poke fun -- perhaps unfairly -- at a poorly written volleyball article published in a student newspaper! Today's article appeared in the Indiana Daily Student, and is entitled, "Penn State volleyball finally defeated."

Unfortunately that may be the best sentence in the piece.

"I know this has no relation to IU athletics..."

Not a strong open.

Yes, the article is about Penn State losing to Stanford, thereby snapping the streak, blah blah blah. So I understand where the writer is coming from.

"But as some of you may know about Penn State Women's Volleyball is currently one of the most dominanat programs in any collegiate sport."

Can I get a big ol' [SIC], because that's exactly how that sentence appears in the article. "Dominanat," I can only assume, is Latin for "gooder." But hey, let's not jump to conclusions. Could've been a typo, along with a modifier that's dangling for dear life. I'm sure it gets better.

"The last three years, the Nittany Lions have won National Championships in each year."

This is true. Penn State elected to try and win just one championship each year, as opposed to going for two or three in one calendar cycle. No need to get all greedy.

"I think-- " Oh goody! Predictions! "-- they will still make it far in the NCAA tournament because they wont [sic] go down to another team thats [sic] in the top 10."

Perhaps. That's fair.

"Hopefully, this team will get the national coverage it deserves because winning 109 straight matches in unheard in todays--" (this guy really doesn't like apostrophes) "sports with all of the competition involved."

Yes. If only there were a way to check on the news to see if Penn State got any coverage; you know, like an engine of some kind that you could use to search the interwebs for specific articles...

I'm sure this in no way reflects the majority of the writer's work, etc., and shame on me for poking fun.