Word of the Week
The found the word "snit" in a story about how Donald Trump may be a 2012 presidential candidate and is a "birther," which means he is challenging President Obama's United States birth. The story said that Trump has gotten into a snit with a New York Times columnist over the topic.
Yourdictionary.com defines snit as: a state of agitation or irritation; a fit of anger. The origin is unknown, and it's hypothesized that it comes from the word "snippy." I found the word interesting because I always pause at small, seemingly simple words that I don't know.
Catch of the Week
I found the headline "UPDATE 1-Wall St Wk Ahead: Will corp earnings justify gains?" and I didn't know what to think of it. I know that every publication may have its own rules for style and headlines, but I just don't like this one. I don't like the capitalization in the first word and I don't like the abbreviations. I read the story and tried to find a purpose for the headline being in this form, but couldn't detect one. I know a lot of times in print, there is a space constraint that may force editors to change headlines, but I feel that with online stories there is a lot more flexibility. This headline just looks sloppy to me.
Headline Challenge
I found the story "Pressure mounts for McIlroy in 'balmy conditions'" in Google News. It's about the PGA Masters, and the reason why I picked it is because I don't like the word "balmy" in the headline. I have no idea what it means. It is used in the lead again, saying that McIlroy is feeling "the heat of balmy conditions." When used in the lead, it is pretty much saying that he's feeling the pressure for the title and messing up. However, I would change the headline to "Pressure mounts for McIlroy in heated conditions" because more people would get the gist of what that means.
Passage of the Week
I'm always content as a reader when I learn something completely new. In the story "Safes, Cash Wash up on Japan Shores After Tsunami" abcnews.com talks about how police are having to separate valuables from junk in all of the rubble left after the tsunami, and then trying to identify owners. This is a huge feat because in Japanese culture, many people still keep their cash at home in safes. There's even a word for it, 'tansu yokin' which literally means 'wardrobe savings,' and it is estimated that $350 billion worth of yen does not get circulated because it's stashed in houses.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Week 10
Word of the Week
I found the word tonnage in an article accusing the iPhone of making it's app world look the best by considering things like wallpaper as apps. The sentence said, "or perhaps allowing competitor's apps to run on the platform to increase 'tonnage.'
Most of the definitions that yourdictionary.com have for the word are having to do with cargo or shipping. It's also defined as weight in tons. It comes from the Old French word tonne.
Catch of the Week
While reading stories about the basketball team and the loss last weekend, I came across "Eving Walker's hot shooting helps Gators into Sweet 16" and flagged it immediately because of the sloppy writing. It reads as if written verbatim from a telecaster's comments or the reporter's notes. It is hardly a story, which I think is a common problem with sports stories. It also states the obvious, like "Kenny Boynton sprains ankle...Boynton left the game with a sprained ankle." I think it shows a lack of effort on the reporter to research the matter further.
Headline Challenge
I found this headline on stumbleupon.com. Really?
Passage of the Week
Something that really struck my emotions was a story about the rescuers risking their lives to contain the radiation spills in Japan. It was on bloomberg.com, but when I went back to my saved link, Bloomberg had removed it. I think maybe because there was some controversial material about how a mother of a rescuer quoted her son talking about how he and most of the rescuers were sure that they would either die soon from radiation poisoning or in the future from cancer.
It also talked about how not all rescuers were getting lead sheets to separate themselves from the radiation when they slept, and how one rescuer sleeps on a desk for extra precautions. The living conditions were also not acceptable considering how much these people are risking, and the story talked about the sleeping conditions and the lack of nutrition in the food they're getting.
I wish the story was still up, but here was the link I saved from Thursday. I found it on google news.
I found the word tonnage in an article accusing the iPhone of making it's app world look the best by considering things like wallpaper as apps. The sentence said, "or perhaps allowing competitor's apps to run on the platform to increase 'tonnage.'
Most of the definitions that yourdictionary.com have for the word are having to do with cargo or shipping. It's also defined as weight in tons. It comes from the Old French word tonne.
Catch of the Week
While reading stories about the basketball team and the loss last weekend, I came across "Eving Walker's hot shooting helps Gators into Sweet 16" and flagged it immediately because of the sloppy writing. It reads as if written verbatim from a telecaster's comments or the reporter's notes. It is hardly a story, which I think is a common problem with sports stories. It also states the obvious, like "Kenny Boynton sprains ankle...Boynton left the game with a sprained ankle." I think it shows a lack of effort on the reporter to research the matter further.
Headline Challenge
I found this headline on stumbleupon.com. Really?
Passage of the Week
Something that really struck my emotions was a story about the rescuers risking their lives to contain the radiation spills in Japan. It was on bloomberg.com, but when I went back to my saved link, Bloomberg had removed it. I think maybe because there was some controversial material about how a mother of a rescuer quoted her son talking about how he and most of the rescuers were sure that they would either die soon from radiation poisoning or in the future from cancer.
It also talked about how not all rescuers were getting lead sheets to separate themselves from the radiation when they slept, and how one rescuer sleeps on a desk for extra precautions. The living conditions were also not acceptable considering how much these people are risking, and the story talked about the sleeping conditions and the lack of nutrition in the food they're getting.
I wish the story was still up, but here was the link I saved from Thursday. I found it on google news.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)