Newsletter Score Sheet
Linda Benedict
Extension and Agricultural Information
How does your newsletter rate? Take a few minutes to score your evaluation of your newsletter. A perfect score is 170. Anything below 100 means you need to make some drastic changes.
Look to see where you're strong and weak. Build on your strengths and improve your weaknesses.
(Give your newsletter a score from 1 to 5 on each of the following items, with 1 = poor and 5= excellent.)
Purpose
Goals clear
Content related to goals
Audience clearly defined
Gives reader sense of belonging
Mailing list
Reaches defined audience
Systematic way to add and remove names
Readers queried on opinions
Layout
First page grabs attention
Origin easily identifiable
Simple, attractive nameplate
Complete information about publisher, date and audience
Length appropriate for audience
Appropriate paper color and size
Type size suitable to clientele
Sufficient margins
Reproduction clean, not muddy
Subject matter
Timely
Relevant and useful to audience
Some items of interest to all readers
Length and prominence of each article reflects its importance
Headlines informative, catchy
Information in each issue not readily available elsewhere
Topics specific enough to cover fully
Accurate, well documented
Writing style
Simple, direct language
Informal tone, personal approach
A variety of sentence lengths
A variety of paragraph lengths
Avoids excessive use of formal, legal or academic language
Uses active voice
Avoids cliches
Clear, active and complete headlines
Interesting opening sentences
Free of grammatical errors
- Dangling modifiers
- Non-parallel sentences
- Shift in verb tense
- Subject-verb disagreement
- Noun-pronoun disagreement
- Misspelling
Total your scores
Purpose
Mailing list
Layout
Subject matter
Writing style