1. Helmet Safety Unchanged: A solid piece from the NYTimes about helmets and head safety. Lots of data is used. This is a good time to look at how newspapers and courses use date to support their claims. What are your thoughts on the data provided? Be specific as you answer the following: does the use of data bolster the validity of the claims?
2. Coaches stress helmet safety: A similar piece to the one mentioned above, but a smaller audience, a more local focus. Compare this article to the one above. Does it cover the material as well? Go as in-depth? Convey the same message?
3. Death of a Fulton Fish Market Fixture: A great feature piece on a mysterious woman. In death, her mystery was revealed. This is just a great example of clean and concise writing that tells not only a story of a woman but also an institution in New York City. What do you think?
6 comments:
Coaches Stress Helmet Safety:
I thought this was a pretty good piece. I would say it was a little dry, but thankfully it wasn't too long and drag on unnecessarily. I think the message conveyed was extremely important, and rather prevalent today: it is football season, and I know a lot of boys at Redwood that have gotten concussions. Even here at MA, soccer players are getting frequented concussions as well. I never really thought about how safe a helmet needed to be to work, I figured that any sort of protection helped. What I think I would have liked to hear more from this piece is what exactly a helmet is protecting from, and the consequences if one does not wear a helmet and gets hit, hurt, etc. Overall, I thought the writing was concise and very straight-news. There wasn't much "jazz" to the piece, but then again, I'm not sure a piece about helmet safety in high schools could be that jazzy.
Death of a Fulton Fish Market Fixture:
Wow! I actually thoroughly enjoyed this piece. Not only did we get to know someone very well; we also got to know a place. The author did a great job of being all-inclusive and putting the reader in this setting and in this lifestyle. The writing was fantastic, and I especially liked the first couple of paragraphs; I thought the opening was the strongest bit of the article. I liked that this piece glamorized this woman, and we saw her sort of "secret life" that not everyone did. After reading through the entire piece, I saw that she was quite an extraordinary woman and I thought the writer conveyed that and her spunk very well.
This sort of writing is always extremely interesting and I think doing a profile on someone at MA that is more creative would be a great addition to the paper. I'm not sure who we could do, but I like the idea of an "underdog" sort of person. When the writing is good, the piece is inspiring and a joy to read. I loved it!
"Coaches Stress Helmet Safety"
I really like the author's use of writing step by step of how a helmet is fitted for an athlete. In the past, the fitting of a football helmet was based on if the player physically looked good in the helmet, but I am happy to see that coaches more importantly give the player a helmet if it is safe for them to wear. I also liked how the author was very methodical and scientific. This article made me ponder the decision that Josh undergoes as he orders the helmets for the MA lacrosse team.
"Death of a Fulton Fish Market Fixture":
This article sets a great example of "show not tell". In the Voice we should use this as an example of how to write a perfect profile piece. In many of our profile pieces we quote the interviewee too much, instead of paraphrasing their information by making it more interesting. Her becoming the "grandmother" of other homeless people, really touched me because although she did not have much to give, she still managed to help and support others by small deeds and donations. This shows that if you give something to a good cause, it is better than giving nothing whatsoever.
Helmet safety left unchanged:
The vast amount of data in this article backs up the claims made in this article, but only to some extent. My feeling from this article was that there is little to no research regarding head concussions in football, and I think that's the most important data piece of this whole argument! It was extremely alarming how even the board members of Nocsae were unaware of the lack of protection for concussions.
Death of a Fulton Fish Market Fixture:
I loved the descriptive and beautiful writing of this article-the pictures also gave it that extra charm. I like how it talks about someone who was not a celebrity for once, and it really goes into detail of her life.
Helmet Safety Unchanged:
I think this piece was definitely very solid. The data helped their article, however, I feel like the data was a little excessive which made the piece rather dry. I think the writer should have been more selective about which data to include instead of just using all of it. I thought this piece was interesting but it got boring by the end.
Death of a Fulton Fish Market Fixture:
I really enjoyed this article! The author did an amazing job of capturing the reader's attention as well as setting the scene where "Annie's" story takes place. I thought the article was well written with a fantastic tone that kept the reader enthralled. I think that the writer really conveyed the personality of this woman and portrayed her public and secret life in a way that she would be proud of. I really enjoyed this article and strongly recommend it!
I can only read the second article: "Coaches stress helmet safety" because the other two require passwords...
I thought this article was very interesting, especially the beginning. The fact that helmets were thought as optional is a foreign idea to me. Whenever I think of a typical football player, the role of a helmet is always crucial. I wonder of the statistics of injury prior to the 1930s and the stats from today correlate with the idea that, becuase there weren't helmets, there were more injuries in earlier times than there are today. However, statistics might also prove that there are more injuries today because the helmet is a reason to play harder than before. These two theories are both plausible and interesting enough to look into the history of football injuries.
Coaches Stress Helmet Safety:
I think this article is particular relevant to MA in relation to the recent concussion testing being done through the athletics department and the attention being brought to potential head injuries.I think at times as athletes we can forget the dangerous injuries that we are very prone to. Yet I think it is interesting that this article questions how much safer these helmet really make someone. It also makes one question if the rediculous price of something really justifies its usefulness, in this case what's the difference between a $300 and $1200 helmet?
Overall this article was very clear and easy to follow. It quickly brings forward an issue that can attract the interest of many.
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