Examples can clarify, define, illustrate,
organize, and support a writer’s ideas. It’s
hard to imagine an essay that does not contain at least one
example. Even more so than other forms of writing, journalism
relies heavily on examples to bring even the most remote
topics closer to a wide and varied audience. The links below
lead you to articles from a number of news services. In each
article, examples are the primary means for getting the reader’s
attention, for clarifying the issue, and for organizing the
body of the essay. The examples in these articles help us
understand the news and, perhaps more importantly, relate
to and empathize with the people who are affected by it.
As you read, ask yourself what purpose the examples in each
essay serve. Are they primarily for organization? Do they
grab your attention? Do they help you relate to the issues?
In this article from magazine
Mother Jones, a tragic
coal-mining accident in Brookwood, Alabama, provides an example
that reveals for readers not only
the incredibly dangerous environment faced by mine workers,
but also the questionable relationship between industry executives
and the safety inspectors whose job it is to patrol and prevent
such disasters. How does the author of this article use the
initial example as a tool for organizing the piece? How do
other examples help to clarify the main idea of each paragraph?
Would the author’s purpose be clear to you without these
examples?
4http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2002/37/ma_96_01.html
1. To the right of this article
are links under the heading “related
articles.” Click
on any of these links and note how examples are used
to organize the articles and to make the issues more
concrete. Is it necessary for journalists to provide
such examples for their audiences? Would these articles
be more objective, or perhaps more factual, if
the author avoided examples and wrote directly about
the lack of safety and oversight in the coal-mining
industry? Why or why not? How would the meaning of
the story change if the author chose different examples?
2. Read some of the headline news
stories in any of the following online newspapers,
focusing on
how examples function in the articles. How does
the use of examples in these “hard” news
stories compare with the use of examples in the “human
interest” stories found in a “family,” “home
and garden,” or “living” section?
4http://www.washingtonpost.com/ 4http://www.nytimes.com/ 4http://www.boston.com/globe/
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