Reading #2

Read, in Dotson’s book, pages 43 thru 55. Respond to what you read, and use these questions if you get stuck: What strikes you as interesting? In what ways do you agree or disagree with him? How does this fit where you are as a writer, and how will it help you become a better one?
(100 words minimum)
Something that strikes me as interesting is that in order to get a reaction from the viewer, the news relies on images rather than florid writing. Great stories are like onions, they have many layers. When one is telling a story it is important to highlight the universal emotions, love, hate, happy, sad. Try to get all of the viewers connected. Even if they're from different educational or ethnic backgrounds. Also its important not to overwhelm the viewer with information. Metaphors are a good way to enhance your speaking and build tension. In order it keep your viewers attention you've got to keep them interested. To do this it's important to avoid cliches and other trick sayings, write with an active voice, group things in threes, build little surprises every where into the story or little moments of fun.
So, Dotson highlights the following:
- How to defeat the TV remote control
- Be conversational
- Gobbledygook and clichés
- Active voice
- Write in threes
- Surprises

Read this story and watch this one (a bit of a sports theme this week). Write two paragraphs (one about each) that explains how the story uses/handles at least three of these aspects. Give specific examples (100 words in each paragraph, so at least 200 total words).

This story is about doing the right thing. When $50,000 is on the line, and a set of twins buy one ticket, you know problems are about to rise. This story uses a couple of ways to keep the readers attention. First of all, the writing is very conversational, but not the point where it detracts from the story. The reporter does a great job of writing in threes. A couple of examples, one at the very beginning are, one, "The puck was three inches wide." Two, "The hole in the plywood was three-and-a-half inches wide." Three, "The kid and the stick were 89 feet of ice away." another application of the rule of three is seen when the family does the right thing. One the Vikings, " brought the whole family to a game," two, let them hang out on the field," three, "put them in a VIP box." The rule of three is almost everywhere in this story.

In the story of the Aho's football dynasty, there is a great use of ways to keep the viewer interested. Surprises are everywhere, bits of humor, bits of interesting facts and pictures make this story what it really is. When the interviewer ask how many boys they have, there's a pause, the conversation that follows is humorous. another time when one of the boys walks in late, and everyone realized they had forgotten he was missing is also a pleasant, humorous surprise. Which brings us to another way they try to keep the viewer's attention. They are very conversational. Everything they talk about is light and easy to comprehend, but in a way that it isn't a shallow story, still very interesting.  The rule of three is applied when the reported explains that the Aho's have had 24 years of "Kneesprains, grass stains and night games."