Within chapter two of our course textbook on the idea of the “Basic News Story,” I found much of what was laid out interesting regarding the writing process and how it differs from what I do in more academic, long-form writing. For instance, I found the idea on page 33 interesting, where visual effects and infographics with more multimedia options are now a part of the writing process. For example, you wouldn’t want to duplicate information that could be viewed visually. To me, that was a different way of thinking about the significance of words on the page in a spatial sense and how you might have to extend your perspective to think of what would be most visually compelling to the reader in not just sentence structure but with the possibility of charts, boxes, photos, etc. Another area within the chapter that I was drawn to was some similarities to much of my writing. I think of how those skills of arranging information to reach whatever the intended goal apply to many different writing genres. As the chapter mentions, in a basic news story, it is essential to identify the main idea or “the focus” and develop a lead, body, and ending. It made me think of how engrained that idea is to me just under different names such as thesis, body, and conclusion. I also found it very helpful at the end of the chapter, where the authors explain how certain grammar rules might change, like quotations or in-text citations.
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