Week 2

I enjoyed this week's focus on lead writing. The take-home assignment to create leads and headlines for Cinderella, etc. was fun. Since the topics were so colorful, it was almost easier to come up with feature leads than the straight news ones.
The in-class assignments were good practice, especially since writing in a short period of time has always been difficult for me. I think I understand the basic format of inverted pyramid lead-writing. So far, what we've been learning in class has been review since I've been studying journalism since freshman year of high school. But I understand that many students haven't had that experience. So even though I am ahead of some students, I need to challenge myself with each assignment and produce the best work I can.

I read two obituaries on Steve Irwin today, one in the NY Times and one from the LA Times online. I found the LA Times article much stronger from the beginning.

"He was the Evel Knievel of the natural world, tempting death by wrestling man-eating crocodiles or galloping into the Australian outback to commune with deadly snakes. So when the end came Monday for Steve Irwin, television's 'Crocodile Hunter,' it was surprising and swift: The 44-year-old was pierced in the heart by the usually placid stingray." Nelson, LA Times

I found the NYT lead a little confusing.
"Steve Irwin, the khaki-clad wildlife stalker who won global fame with his televised death-defying crocodile stunts and whose booming voice made 'Crikey!' in a ripe Australian accent an international catchword, was killed by a stingray yesterday while filming a documentary at the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s northeast coast. He was 44." Collins, NY Times

The first sentence is too long. I think a big problem comes with "in a ripe Ausralian accent." When I read the sentence without that phrase, it seems to flow better since "Crikey!" is put right in front of "an international catchword." I'm also not a fan of "televised death-defying crocodile stunts." It's another awkward sounding phrase that interrupts the flow of a lead with good intentions.
The obits generally contained the same information, but I enjoyed the LA Times version a lot more. And I should note that I read it after I had read the NYT article, since usually people prefer whatever they saw/heard/read first. In this case the style of LA TImes piece stood out to me more than the other.