Sunday, February 15, 2009

Mystery near Buffalo

On the New York Times website, an article titled "In Plane Crash, the Loss of Momentum Is Still a Mystery" presented great information and detailed facts concerning the place crash that took place in Amherst, New York. I noticed, however, that only several of the paragraphs in the article contained quotations: One direct and some indirect by Steven Chealander, retired airline captain and safety board commissioner who is covering the scene. Can articles still be successful with a lack of personal enlightenment? I say yes. The article presents great background research by the writer that could have been difficult to gather from oral sources. The article tells the main concerns: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, but also develops these questions with deeper research. The writer paints a flip-book of events for the reader and told me exactly what I wanted to know about the crash that took place several days ago. I believe this article could actually be more successful than others because of the great detail and vivid imagery. Maybe sometimes its not the voice behind your sources, but the voice behind your writer.

1 comment:

  1. I agree completely with Brooke's mentality on the discussion of the use of quotations within an article. Some articles are much better off without quotations, it is just hard to decifer when these articles are present or not. When describing some kind of major event such as this plane crash outside of Buffalo, I feel like getting the story out in the most important factor of all. Individuals will know what people are going to say and feel once they hear about the story without the use of quotes. However, sometimes quotes allows the reader to picture the event in more detail. It is hard to figure out when to use quotations but I would agree with you Brooke in saying it is indeed possible to have a good story without the use of many quotes.

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