Criticism of criticism

Perhaps one of the best things that can happen to a project during its beginnings is having an outsider provide criticism and an impartial opinion. Unfortunately in the ``Scholar Follies'' article by Beth Heinen, both the impartiality and the criticism were improperly expressed.

``Scholar Follies,'' as far as I know, has only aired one episode. Being the first, it is bound to be riddled with mistakes. Heinen was keen to pick up on some of the technical elements in need of work and in fact gave some insightful indications of areas where the show can improve.

The problems in her article are most evident in the seventh paragraph, dedicated almost entirely to harsh, opinionated and unattributed comments regarding the show. She accuses the cast of taking itself too seriously, and of making the lines sound too rehearsed. Is that a fact or a matter of opinion?

The majority of the comments made in the article are unnecessarily negative, as is the language. An example of this is the use of the word ``lures'' to describe a T-shirt giveaway. Now, to the best of my knowledge that word is used for animals attracting prey, and I am nearly certain the cast does not bite.

Regretfully, the worst two mistakes she made are those she should never make. First, the article was placed on page two of the news section. Largely, the story is an unkind opinion piece. The second problem is bad style; according to Associated Press style-guidelines book titles, magazine titles and TV-show titles are written out in their entirety. Throughout Heinen's piece the show is referred to as ``Follies.'' This is not only bad style but also bad form (it is disrespectful).

I honestly hope this bit of criticism helps Heinen in the future. I believe as students we should be critical of each other but only in so far as we are encouraging and fair. Many students at Calvin College are participants in different projects, as Christians we should do our best to help each other in their development by being critical. I think Heinen has the right idea in the article but needs to watch more carefully for objectivity and fairness.

Mariano I. Avila, '03