September Blog Assignment part II

While writing an opinion article about the fire drill, I encountered obstacles that could easily have been avoided. I immediately assumed that because the article was based on my opinion, it was unnecessary to interview anyone before writing it. However, I realized I had based my opinion on personal observation, and was ignoring the facts and reasoning behind the system. My eventual interview with Mr. Lee went well, and I received answers explaining the parts of the drill I was skeptical about. This was a huge benefit, because his responses caused my original opinion to change. Another obstacle arose when it came time to write the article. Although I had cleared up my questions, I had never actually seen the drill in action, so my article was centered around a rough practice run and an interview with Mr. Lee. This was especially frustrating, because the drill was run the day after I handed in my article. Frustration aside, my final article turned out better than expected, and after fully running the drill my view has not changed. To make this piece more effective, I could have saved time by immediately speaking to Mr. Lee and getting all of the facts before formulating an opinion. It also would have been beneficial to put off writing the article until after the drill had been run.

September Blog Assignment part I

An article in a recent issue of The Manchester Cricket explains the plan of 17 Manchester-Essex students to travel plan to Ecuador in the summer of 2011. I was drawn to this article because the topic is familiar to me. When I noticed MERHS in the headline, I was immediately curious. A photo above the article includes classmates and peers that I quickly recognize. The fact that the article is about my school and includes people I may know automatically steals my attention. Because this topic is somewhat familiar to me, it might cause me to put more focus into reading the article or even cause me to become involved with the task and group being discussed. The article thoroughly covers the topic while remaining relatively short. It covers all aspects of the Ecuador trip and leaves few to no questions unanswered. However, every paragraph and most sentences run long, causing the article to drag. The writing could be more concise, and a few sentences are written awkwardly. The article ends on a strong note providing a name, email address, and phone number to contact with any further interest or questions.