Monday, April 14, 2014

Columnist Unit-HW Assignment


Krista Ramsey is reminiscing about the irresponsible acts of vandalism that she saw take place at Opening Day. This act would be committed by a 7 or 8 year old boy who was uprooting pansies while standing in a flower pot to get a better view of the Opening Day Parade.

Click on the link below to view the whole story

I feel like the best-written line of the entire piece is when Krista Ramsey is when she says, "Whatever source I expected for the carnage, it was not a kid being given a gilded view of a parade." The impact that this line has on the audience is that it nearly tells the story in one line. The diction of this line is low key, and there are only 2 words that are elevated, and those are "carnage" and "gilded". This line also shows Ramsey's tone of how surprised she was to see that the wreckage being done was do to the un-carelessness of a parent allowing their son to do whatever they wanted.

Ramsey's writing style is consistent throughout the three pieces, and she also shows great passion for each story. It came to my attention that she tries to keep the audience engaged by asking a question such as in the first article, "The result?" although this question is answered immediately after, it is enough to keep a hold on the attention of the audience. She exemplifies this grasp of the audience by allows ending with a strong concluding statement, in the second article she ends it by saying, "Whatever the score of the game, they'll both look like winner." to wrap up the entire piece into a strong, powerful sentence that sticks with the reader. But for the third article, the one that I choose. Her grasp of the audience, is immediate. The very first line, "You will never remember the moment. I can't forget it.” This opening line is enough to grab a hold of the audience to make them wonder, what is it that she can't forget? It is clear that Ramsey does her best to grasp the audience whether from the very beginning, middle, or end, you know you're going to be brought in under her grasp at some point.

Questions:
1. How do you come up with ideas to write about so quickly?
2. How do you know when to include question at the right time?
3. Should you always include some sort of question in a columnist piece?

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