Classmate Blog Critique: Lucas Sharp

     Lucas was kind enough to choose my blog to critique so I figured I could return the favor. When we look at Lucas's work it's important to remember that he only last year decided to pursue mass communications as his major. I can confidently say he's picked it up and ran with it rather quickly. Every project I've seen him do over the past two years has became steadily more polished with each go. This year he has really made strides in developing his own signature style and fielding his interests to make for some interesting articles. As I have mentioned in the past I appreciate brevity. My ADHD causes me to have the attention span of a goldfish and there's a rare "golden hour" so to speak where my focus is completely on the work at hand. Lucas does an excellent job of presenting easy to digest bites of information that touches the fine balance between being informative and not boring someone to death. I've been known to be long winded but I suppose I'm a bit of a hypocrite because my brain can only hang in there for so long. 

    

    As we see in the above work Lucas does a great job of using straightforward language to set up his interactive content. He gives a bit of introduction then uses a quote to fast track the exposition to help get to the point a bit quicker. Most people either under use or abuse quotes but he seems to have a good grasp of where they belong. He chips in personal touches that give the articles a bit of humanity to what is otherwise a to the point piece. 

    

    Information is key. When discussing things with varying price points it's important to present the information in a clean and legible format. In this instance Lucas was discussing streaming services and he made it very clear what all the prices were, not only for the basic packages but for the add-ons as well. One other thing I've noticed is that even when he's covering a subject with a lot of concrete information (prices, statistics, etc.) he still adds the previously mentioned personal touch not only in his introductory paragraph but also in his closing statements as well. Its a nice juxtaposition of tone change. It keeps the articles from feeling too cold and factual. 

    

    You can tell that Lucas really hits his stride when he enjoys a topic much like the rest of us. He seems to add a bit more to the topics he has a personal interest in and I'll be the first to admit I do the same. It's easier to find your flow when you genuinely care about a subject. I enjoyed the research he put into his article on the newly released Justice League Snyder Cut, there are a few key details people tend to overlook when they discuss this film but he hit them. One such detail was the real reason Zach Snyder stepped down from to initial project. All in all it was solid work all around. The only improvements I would suggest would be a little more length, while I do enjoy work another paragraph or two on some articles could have been beneficial in the way of furthering his room to run in terms of his writing. The only other thing was the blog's design seemed to be missing a bit of Lucas's artistic flair that I've seen in past projects. The set up of the articles was visually appealing but it could have used a splash of color here and there. Other than those small things I can see the improvements he's making on a daily basis. I firmly believe if he sticks with it and kicks it into next gear he could be a very well rounded writer and media analyst in no time at all.