How do we get the truth?
Carl Bernstein says that time can help us get to the truth. He says we often rush through to get a story out and it would be more truthful if we took more time on our stories.
He also says not to just write for "shock" because sometimes when we do that, our facts become a form of misinformation.
I agree with Bernstein 100%. I also think there are a couple more ways to find the truth. One is when you are interviewing someone on a subject, perhaps talk to more than one person. You can compare stories and sometimes you will find one wasn't being 100% truthful. Also, it is smart to research the topic as much as you can before you talk to people. That way, if something doesn't sound complete, you can ask more questions then instead of going back to write your story and find that something just doesn't fit.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
3rd Analysis
Analyzing Articles with Murray’s Help
For people today, Hurricane Katrina is still fresh in their minds. It left little behind when it ripped through the states that line the Gulf of Mexico. The Times-Picayune won the Pulitzer Prize for its articles on this devastation.
In "Looters Leave Nothing Behind in Storm's Wake," writers, Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot, tell of all the looting that took place in the stores. They set the scene by describing people taking advantage of the situation by saying, "Inside the store, the scene alternated between celebration and frightening bedlam. A shirtless man straddled a broken jewelry case, yelling, "Free samples, free samples over here."" They could have just said that there was a man on a jewelry case yelling, but their adjectives and the quotations really add to the story and help us imagine it more clearly.
They end their story with the external dialogue, ""It must be legal," she said. "The police are here taking stuff, too."" This, I'm sure, is what everyone there was thinking. Perhaps, while you read the story, you thought the same way, so it was an excellent way to end it.
Like Murray says, third-person works best in narrative. Perlstein and Thevenot used third-person well when they said, "Officers claimed there was nothing they could do to contain the anarchy, saying their radio communications had broken down and they had no direction from commanders." In a sense, they had to use third-person because they were telling other people's stories.
The above quotation could also be seen as exposition in the story. They explain what the officers were going through at the time of the looting. This helps us understand why they did nothing to stop it.
Another article that helped The Times-Picayune win the Pulitzer Prize was "Swollen Feet Impede Diabetic's Evacuation" by Keith Spera. This story dealt with people’s struggle to find help after Hurricane Katrina.
When we are first introduced to 65 year-old Faye Taplin, we are given external dialogue when she tells Spera, "I'm tired," she said. "My feet have swollen up on me. I can't walk that far."We are given exposition when Spera says that “she clutched two plastic bags containing bedding, a little food and water and insulin to treat her diabetes.”
Your heart goes out to a stroke victim that was in a wheel chair when their sister, Clara Wallace says, "Nobody has a bathroom he can use." Again, Spera is using external dialogue to make you feel the story more. When you get words straight from the source it makes the story more real and helps you connect with the characters.
Speaking of character, this story has many. The story starts with the 93-year-old woman in the beginning whose husband died and was taken by a truck to Convention Center Boulevard and left there. Of course there is Faye Taplin and Clara Wallace and her brother.
At the end of the story, Spera goes back to the old woman who was left with her deceased husband. By telling us about them in the beginning of the story and then going back to them at the end and saying, “Eventually, guardsmen loaded her into a truck and hauled her off with other elderly evacuees,” Spera demonstrates the element of chronological order.
With dramatic action like, “Seated next to her husband's body on the neutral ground beneath the St. Joseph Street sign, Allie Harris munched on crackers, seemingly unaware of the tragedy unfolding around her,” we feel for this old woman who just lost her husband.
This story also had internal dialogue when he says, “As the afternoon wore on, hope faded, replaced by anger.” We are able to tell what the characters were feeling which really adds to the effect of the story.
He ends the story in an excellent way. "This is 2005," John Murray shouted, standing in the street near Mr. Harris' body. "It should not be like this for no catastrophe. This is pathetic." If this isn’t an example of great external dialogue, then I don’t know what is.
Both of these stories used Murray’s elements of narratives very effectively. By using internal dialogue, external dialogue, scene, character, exposition, and others, a writer can really make a reader connect to their story.
For people today, Hurricane Katrina is still fresh in their minds. It left little behind when it ripped through the states that line the Gulf of Mexico. The Times-Picayune won the Pulitzer Prize for its articles on this devastation.
In "Looters Leave Nothing Behind in Storm's Wake," writers, Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot, tell of all the looting that took place in the stores. They set the scene by describing people taking advantage of the situation by saying, "Inside the store, the scene alternated between celebration and frightening bedlam. A shirtless man straddled a broken jewelry case, yelling, "Free samples, free samples over here."" They could have just said that there was a man on a jewelry case yelling, but their adjectives and the quotations really add to the story and help us imagine it more clearly.
They end their story with the external dialogue, ""It must be legal," she said. "The police are here taking stuff, too."" This, I'm sure, is what everyone there was thinking. Perhaps, while you read the story, you thought the same way, so it was an excellent way to end it.
Like Murray says, third-person works best in narrative. Perlstein and Thevenot used third-person well when they said, "Officers claimed there was nothing they could do to contain the anarchy, saying their radio communications had broken down and they had no direction from commanders." In a sense, they had to use third-person because they were telling other people's stories.
The above quotation could also be seen as exposition in the story. They explain what the officers were going through at the time of the looting. This helps us understand why they did nothing to stop it.
Another article that helped The Times-Picayune win the Pulitzer Prize was "Swollen Feet Impede Diabetic's Evacuation" by Keith Spera. This story dealt with people’s struggle to find help after Hurricane Katrina.
When we are first introduced to 65 year-old Faye Taplin, we are given external dialogue when she tells Spera, "I'm tired," she said. "My feet have swollen up on me. I can't walk that far."We are given exposition when Spera says that “she clutched two plastic bags containing bedding, a little food and water and insulin to treat her diabetes.”
Your heart goes out to a stroke victim that was in a wheel chair when their sister, Clara Wallace says, "Nobody has a bathroom he can use." Again, Spera is using external dialogue to make you feel the story more. When you get words straight from the source it makes the story more real and helps you connect with the characters.
Speaking of character, this story has many. The story starts with the 93-year-old woman in the beginning whose husband died and was taken by a truck to Convention Center Boulevard and left there. Of course there is Faye Taplin and Clara Wallace and her brother.
At the end of the story, Spera goes back to the old woman who was left with her deceased husband. By telling us about them in the beginning of the story and then going back to them at the end and saying, “Eventually, guardsmen loaded her into a truck and hauled her off with other elderly evacuees,” Spera demonstrates the element of chronological order.
With dramatic action like, “Seated next to her husband's body on the neutral ground beneath the St. Joseph Street sign, Allie Harris munched on crackers, seemingly unaware of the tragedy unfolding around her,” we feel for this old woman who just lost her husband.
This story also had internal dialogue when he says, “As the afternoon wore on, hope faded, replaced by anger.” We are able to tell what the characters were feeling which really adds to the effect of the story.
He ends the story in an excellent way. "This is 2005," John Murray shouted, standing in the street near Mr. Harris' body. "It should not be like this for no catastrophe. This is pathetic." If this isn’t an example of great external dialogue, then I don’t know what is.
Both of these stories used Murray’s elements of narratives very effectively. By using internal dialogue, external dialogue, scene, character, exposition, and others, a writer can really make a reader connect to their story.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Pulitzer Analysis
The article i looked at was "I Saw It. Then I Saw Nothing." by Daniel Henninger.
When I first started reading the article i was some what put off by the writing style of Henninger. I was not a big fan at all of him using "I saw" five times in the opening paragraph. It reminded me of Jr. High writing.
"I saw the airliner at the instant it hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. A little later I saw the flames burst out of the south tower when the second airliner hit it. I saw people fall from the top of the World Trade Center. I saw the south tower fall down. A little later, I saw the north tower fall down."
He did do a much better job at describing the scene of the city. He told us of the World Financial Center buildings and said that they sat in the shadow of the WTC towers. I also enjoyed reading how he liked to come in on the bridge everyday and see the buildings and the Statue of Liberty.
Henninger used internal dialogue when he writes, "Quicker than these words can convey, my mind said: I think I just saw the wing of an airliner below the top of the Trade Center." It is obvious it was internal dialogue for the simple fact that he said his mind said it. When it comes to 9/11, it is interesting to know what people were thinking when they saw the planes crash into the WTC.
When I was reading this article, the paragraph that stood out the most was this one,
"For awhile, aside from the flames and smoke, it was oddly uneventful. Sometimes windows would fall off the building and float down; sometimes a piece of smoking debris would arc downward. Then people started jumping off."
I always thought that after the first plane hit, it was caos everywhere. But to hear that it was "uneventful" surprised me. But as soon as he said "Then people started jumping off," you know the real truama of it all was beginning. I could really picture this paragraph when i read it. It set the scene with description of what was falling of the building at first, and then talking about the people jumping really added to it. This paragraph could also go under the "Dramatic Action" category in Notes on Narratives b/c it caused me to think and feel.
In this paragraph, "Now we were all running away, hard, because the smoke, about 40 stories high, was racing outward, toward us and all of lower Manhattan. My editorial-page colleague Jason Riley told me later that he got caught in the first collapse's fallout. He couldn't run faster than the smoke and crawled under a van to avoid the debris. But he started choking and his eyes were burning and the air had turned black. He said he thought the van would move and kill him. He banged on the van's window and they let him in. Then they opened the door to let two other guys in, and the van started filling with floating debris and smoke. He got out and cops were telling people to "make for the water." Jason headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge, and made it across."
I really liked the way he wrote Chronologically. It was as if i was watching a movie playing in my mind when i read it. It all moved a long very smoothly.This paragraph was also the only sign of external dialogue, but it worked for this article that there wasn't much external dialogue.
Over all, I'm glad i continued reading this article, even though i did not like how it was started.
When I first started reading the article i was some what put off by the writing style of Henninger. I was not a big fan at all of him using "I saw" five times in the opening paragraph. It reminded me of Jr. High writing.
"I saw the airliner at the instant it hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. A little later I saw the flames burst out of the south tower when the second airliner hit it. I saw people fall from the top of the World Trade Center. I saw the south tower fall down. A little later, I saw the north tower fall down."
He did do a much better job at describing the scene of the city. He told us of the World Financial Center buildings and said that they sat in the shadow of the WTC towers. I also enjoyed reading how he liked to come in on the bridge everyday and see the buildings and the Statue of Liberty.
Henninger used internal dialogue when he writes, "Quicker than these words can convey, my mind said: I think I just saw the wing of an airliner below the top of the Trade Center." It is obvious it was internal dialogue for the simple fact that he said his mind said it. When it comes to 9/11, it is interesting to know what people were thinking when they saw the planes crash into the WTC.
When I was reading this article, the paragraph that stood out the most was this one,
"For awhile, aside from the flames and smoke, it was oddly uneventful. Sometimes windows would fall off the building and float down; sometimes a piece of smoking debris would arc downward. Then people started jumping off."
I always thought that after the first plane hit, it was caos everywhere. But to hear that it was "uneventful" surprised me. But as soon as he said "Then people started jumping off," you know the real truama of it all was beginning. I could really picture this paragraph when i read it. It set the scene with description of what was falling of the building at first, and then talking about the people jumping really added to it. This paragraph could also go under the "Dramatic Action" category in Notes on Narratives b/c it caused me to think and feel.
In this paragraph, "Now we were all running away, hard, because the smoke, about 40 stories high, was racing outward, toward us and all of lower Manhattan. My editorial-page colleague Jason Riley told me later that he got caught in the first collapse's fallout. He couldn't run faster than the smoke and crawled under a van to avoid the debris. But he started choking and his eyes were burning and the air had turned black. He said he thought the van would move and kill him. He banged on the van's window and they let him in. Then they opened the door to let two other guys in, and the van started filling with floating debris and smoke. He got out and cops were telling people to "make for the water." Jason headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge, and made it across."
I really liked the way he wrote Chronologically. It was as if i was watching a movie playing in my mind when i read it. It all moved a long very smoothly.This paragraph was also the only sign of external dialogue, but it worked for this article that there wasn't much external dialogue.
Over all, I'm glad i continued reading this article, even though i did not like how it was started.
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