3 ms·
This is slightly off topic, but I find the writing style in the article odd, though this kind of writing is common in supposedly good newspapers and magazines w
by Gravityloss 13y ago
This is slightly off topic, but I find the writing style in the article odd, though this kind of writing is common in supposedly good newspapers and magazines with long winded stories:
"Outraged by their experience in Tenaha, Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson helped to launch a class-action lawsuit challenging the abuse of a legal doctrine known as civil-asset forfeiture. “Have you looked it up?” Boatright asked me when I met her this spring at Houston’s H&H Saloon, where she runs Steak Night every Monday. She was standing at a mattress-size grill outside. “It’ll blow your mind.”"
What does the grill have to do with this? Why does every story have to have adjective laden filler how the people's hair looks like and where the interviewer meets them?
- gyepi 13y agoDiscussing the grill serves to provide a context for their meeting and to establish character, in this case, by describing what she does. I imagine most American readers can relate to someone who knows their way around a grill; especially a "mattress" sized one. It's called Litery Journalism. As I recall, Gay Talese and Joan Didion, among others, helped to popularize it.
- danso 13y agoA. Because it shows the reporter was there and actually met the subjects. B. Because it's a way to draw the reader into a story through imagery, before exploring the legal/technical details. Adjective-laden writing is the mark of an amateur. However, in the passage you're objecting to, there doesn't seem to be a single adjective in there.