Pilot Returns Home to a Hero’s Welcome

When I read this article about the pilot who had safely landed an airplane holding over 150 people in the Hudson River because of engine problems, I was glad to see that the journalist was able to show the reader just how low-key and modest he actually is. But, I did notice a few things about his writing that really opened my eyes. While I was reading, I noticed that there wasn't too many quotes in the article, but then at the end there was four quotes in a row. I thought it was odd that the author put them altogether instead of spreading them throughout his article. The quotes were also all from adults and parents. The journalist could have varied the people he got his quotes from by adding opinions of younger people. Also, the quotes all had the same general idea- that the incident was 'never-before-seen' and totally shocking. The journalist could have gotten quotes from passengers on the plane that would have made the reader have a personal connection to the story. I also thought that the paragraph "Standing erect in a dark suit, gray shirt and tie....while their two daughters watched from the front row" could have been placed a lot sooner in the article, because I thought that it was able to show right off the bat that the pilot was a normal guy with a family, that was able to make a difference and save many lifes. I got the impression from the article, that that is what he was trying to show the reader, and I think that if he placed this sooner in the article he would be able to get his point across sooner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/nyregion/25pilot.html?fta=y

http://www.ktvu.com/news/18261602/detail.html

This article is about a high school in San Jose, California that had recently had all of their sports teams cut due to economic problems. As I read this article, I felt that the author added his own bias by only adding quotes that opposed the cuts. Out of the six quotes in this article, all of them are from parents, teachers, or students saying how disappointed they were in the cuts. The author briefly mentions that if the town cuts sports, then there will be less cuts in the actual classroom. If i was writing this article I would have added quotes from outsiders who understand that more cuts in extra-curricular programs means less cuts for education.
I can undertand having a few quotes opposing the cuts, and a few quotes supporting the cuts, but this author didn't do that. One quote that was added to the article was "I can't understand how we would take something so valuable as athletics from these youngsters. So I ask the board to reconsider. Shame on the people that are responsible for even bringing this up tonight. Shame on you! Shame, shame, shame!" I felt like this quote could be percieved as a personal attack, I can understand that the people in the town are upset but that quote is a little extreme!

http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2008/10/14/14gigaom-solar-power-photos-of-greenvolts-sopogy-skyfuel-12110.html

Solar Power: Photos of GreenVolts, Sopogy, SkyFuel
By Katie Fehrenbacher

The author to this article, Katie Fehrenbacher, took a boring subject, and was able to jazz it up. In the first paragraph, she was talking in the 2nd person and saying things like "...we’d be able to watch the innovative solar systems that are crowded into the building in action". Whenever an author talks in the 2nd person, I feel that they immediatly pull the reader into the story and make it impossible to stop. The author also worked her opinion into the article, which is really not something that I am used to doing, but seemed to fit in perfectly in her article without adding bias, ex: "If there was a Best of Show award for displays, I’d give it to GreenVolts, which was displaying a system that uses 176 power units that concentrate light onto highly-efficient triple junction cells...".
The author included an exclamation point in a parenthesis in the middle of the article, which I was really surprised to see, only because I know that I can't use exclamation points in articles that I write for the paper! So, as small as it is, it is something that stood out to me. Fehrenbacher's article was really unique to read, because it seemed to break all of the 'rules' that I am used to following when I write an article.

helloooo goodbye.