Friday, February 13, 2009
Quoting in a WWII Airmen Interview
Yesterday we spent a lot of our discussion learning quote placement strategies, working a story to get the most important quote as near the lead as possible. Tristan Smith, in her CNN report, "As 'Flying Fortress' reaches sky, former airmen relive the high," leads with a scene setter. What is interesting about it is that the scene setter lead doubles as the anticipation for her first quote. Though I think the lead could be worded differently (it confused me my first time through, making me think there was another "88-year-old man"), the quote following quote strongly supports the main idea suggested in the title. Wendell Lawing's reminiscing is exactly why the audience stopped for this article. The rest of the article is mostly paraphrasing mixed with direct quotes leading to coverage of the exact event, which the author chose to leave as a backdrop. Smith, keeping her paragraphs concise and not getting in the way of her reporting, gives us decent example of what a feature report should look like.
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This is a very good observation done. I find that placing quotes within articles seems to be the most challenging part of it all. After our class discussion on Thursday and the reassurance that quotes at the top add positively to the article, this observation has also helped me to understand yet another way quotes can be used. This article did use a scene setter, which seemed different and interesting, however the quotes are what helped the journalist mold her story.
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