Reading Journal

I am not exactly sure which stories we are supposed to focus on for this weeks reading journal, but I thought the best way to go about it was to focus on the stories that grabbed me the most—and then talk about what I get from them in regards to form, style and inspiration on how I will construct my next piece. The first story I read was Trial by Fire—it told the tale of what seemed to be a horrific crime, and the man who is paying for it (whether he committed it or not). The first thing I realized about this story was how the author described what happened the day of the fire. It takes the behind the headline approach yet still places you in the middle of what’s happening. From my exposure to this article, what I like most about it is how the author combines different story lines; he first puts you in the scene of what happened and then he tells about the accused perpetrator, a great way of weaving together to different pieces of information. The article that grabbed my attention the most was The Great Unwashed, witch spoke about the trend of not bathing on a daily basis. What it does great is that it covers all element of the story, from weaving together person accounts of individuals that don’t clean themselves regularly to talking about the physical benefits that can present themselves to people who opt out of daily showering. Looking at these as well as the several other articles provided I was insipid to look for a variety of different elements for my article. A feature article allows you to analyze every layer of a story rather then just tell the reader the information you have found (like in a traditional news story). From my readings good feature writing is able to test the boundary between journalism and fiction.