Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. Here’s this week’s pick:

The “tick-tock” story is a favorite format among journalists and readers alike. The tick-tock reconstructs a particular event, drawing on a variety of sources to give the reader behind-the-scenes look at a familiar story. Tick-tocks can have the feel of a good pulp novel, as characters emerge and tension builds. One year after a University of Florida student’s murder and another young man’s arrest, The Alligator’s Chris Alcantara attempts to piece together what happened between Christian Aguilar and Pedro Bravo last September, and what happened to their families in the meantime. Though the writing comes off at times as too staccato, the reporting reveals emotional details about the crime and its ripple effects.