Week 7

Word of the Week

Yourdictionary.com defines 'raze' as: to tear down completely; level to the ground; demolish.

I found the word 'raze' interesting because in a story about the New Zealand earthquake death toll, a sentence said that most of the buildings downtown would need to be 'razed' and rebuilt.  At first glance, I thought it was either a typo, or a European way of spelling the word 'raise.'  When I realized that it was an article from a publication in Orlando, I decided to look it up.

Yourdictionary.com says that 'raze comes from the Middle English word 'razen,' which means: to scrape off.  Dictionary.com says that it comes from the Middle French word raser.


Catch of the Week

In "What newsrooms can learn from tech startups" from Dr. Rodgers' twitter, the article meant to say "you'll be distracted by their awesomeness for five minutes, at least" it said "give minutes" instead.  I understand why the mistake was made because I even typed "give" the first time around when meaning to type "five."  Better editing is what's needed.


Headline Challenge

I picked the article "8-year-old Faces Judge after 5th Arrest" because I didn't agree with the headline and the way the article was written.  By the headline, you would think that the child were a very misbehaved, undisciplined person, when actually, he's a special needs student.  My brother is autistic, and anyone with background knowledge on special needs students understands that some of them have violent personalities.  While we never had that particular issue with my brother, it is generally understood that it is the parents' and teachers' responsibilities to iron out bad habits like violence.  If this is the severe case that the article makes it out to be, then obviously the child needs special therapy, because he can't go on for rest of his life hitting people.  I think the mistake was that this story was written primarily from the police report.  The reporter should have sensed that this story required some deeper digging on his or her part.  I would have spoken to the family and the teacher to see what was really going on.  I would rewrite the whole story, but  for this story, I would rewrite the headline "Special Needs Student Arrested 5th Time."  The readers need to know up front that this 8-year-old is a special needs student, and not a delinquent.


Passage of the Week