Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Journalistic Writing
Take a look at this article before proceeding. I found it a few moments ago at the Yahoo! homepage.Content of the article aside, I'm pretty amused at a few things:
1. The article is looooooooong. It never really seems to end. If printed in the newspaper, I'm quite sure it will take up more than the usual space (for such a news).
2. I can't figure out the main point! What's the news point? Where is the value? Hur hur hur?! Am I dumb or what?
3. So many different sub-points! He don't know what are SUB-HEADINGs! His arguments and counter-arguments are all over. The article seems more like a short recent biography (which seems to be as chaotic and confusing as the article) of Cho instead of a news article, which brings us to the next point.
4. It provides TOO MUCH INFORMATION that I don't want to know. Information like, what school Cho is from, when he bought the gun, from where he bought the gun, how much is the gun, the articles he wrote for creative writing etc. Not to mention, they actually described his house as "an off-white, two-story townhouse in Centreville, Va". Why do I want to know that? Stay away from that town? The boy is dead for goodness sake! I think his parents will be moving out soon.
5. Leading the audience. It's so subtle, you don't even notice it. E.g. some statement about political hobby horse. And it follows with the paragraph on President Bush. Wah liew! That paragraph explans nothing about political hobby horse. I think the writer included that because it suits his views (I think only, don't believe if you don't think so :P).
6. Associated Press got this kind of writer? So much typo errors. Or maybe this article is rejected and therefore posted on the web? Maybe someone can tell me if this article appeared in any print format.
7. "The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media." If I'm the boss, I'll probably dig out who is this official after the work for this case is over. Definitely not the authorised police official (where is the authorised official, huh?). Pretty bizarre that someone gave the writer information, requested anonymity and the writer actually explained. I thought the standard is like "His neighbour, who refused to be named..."? Maybe I've been sleeping in newswriting class. :x
See see! I wanted to list more, but I guess should give it some worth. Ok lah, at least now I know what happened, where it happened and how many people died (and tons of other useless information).
Labels: random
posted by QueenPig @ 10:01 AM
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At 2:02 PM ,
said...the article in ST had some of the points the article mentioned too.. but this article sounds more like an entertainment kind of news.
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At 10:02 PM ,
said...haha. i read this before. it sounds like they keep adding on to the article when they get more info... i read the one on channelnewsasia, it's more organised... but this one came out first, so i read on even though it was long winded...
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