Miners in Chile Close to Being Rescued

When writing short news articles, it is crucial to capture the readers attention. This is clearly evident in much of the news we read on the internet, and it seems as if the writers who do the best job in holding our attention also happen to be writing for the most well known news websites. In one recent article, the author does a great job in using just one idea per paragraph to really bring in the reader.

The article this particular writer wrote about was a news story about the Chilean miners who have been trapped underground. A rescue capsule has been made, and the hope is to have those miners rescued by sometime in November. The article continues on about the fact that there must be several careful preparations put into place before the miners can be pulled out.

The author does a great job holding the readers interests by using several short paragraphs, a few as short as one sentence. This makes the reader more likely to pay attention, as the story is rapidly developing, rather than developing slowly over a long drawn out paragraph.

The ability to engage readers is perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of writing, and when an author is able to effectively use techniques to engage the readers, it leads to very intriguing articles. In the case of the one this author wrote, we learn how much longer the miners are stuck underground, as well as what is being done to get them out. When written effectively, the produces a "wow" factor in the writing, and also leads to articles worth reading.

Hopefully the miners in Chile will be rescued earlier than expected, but until then, we must wait and see.

Read the original article at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39360789/ns/world_news-americas/

Gulf Oil Well Permanently Closed

Finally, in the Gulf of Mexico today, the oil well that for months leaked oil was permanently closed today. This has prompted a positive reaction for many people across America. In the article I read that explained the success of closing the well, I found that the writer assumed that the average reader would make quite a few inferences. To begin with, the writer assumed that the reader knew about the BP oil spill. This was clearly because the writer's audience was primarily American's, where the oil spill has become common knowledge.

The writer chose quotes carefully, in order to really touch the reader's emotions associated with the oil spill. Many people felt that the response to the event took far too long, and as a result the author of this article chose the quote,"We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead".The reason this quote was chosen was to really touch the emotion shared among many people in which it was believed that the oil spill took far to long to clean up.

Through the use of inferences and using writing techniques specifically to target a certain demographic, the writer was able to get his point across very effectively that this was a significant event. The inference in which the author assumes that the reader knows about the oil spill is interesting however, because he does still briefly describes the original cause of all the spilled oil later in the article. I find this particularly interesting because it is as if the author was hoping to reach an even broader audience in which there were people who were unaware of the situation at hand. He grabs the readers attention with an interesting headline and opening paragraph, but still makes it so others who are unaware of the situation to still understand the story.

In the end, it is how a news article is written that determines how effective it is at conveying a message. This article did a great job, and thanks to it, I know have the peace of mind knowing that the BP spill is no longer as much of a crisis and all efforts can be focused on cleaning up what is left. Now we can only hope that the marine life makes a full recovery from this awful disaster.

Read the original article here:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N19215397.htm

Charging Our Future Transportation

Whether intended or not, all authors write for a specific audience or purpose. For authors of one such article, the purpose is to enhance awareness of the current state of electric vehicles and the ability to charge them on a cross country trip. The intended audience of the article is not only the general public, but more specifically those who are interested in alternative energy sources for future transportation.

The reason these authors are stressing the situation of electric powered vehicles is because at this time, it is not practical to make a long distance trip in an exclusively electric car. There have been proposed solutions to this problem, with several roadside charging stations being tested. The importance of building some type of infrastructure to charge vehicles is incredible, as these electric vehicles would reduce carbon emissions by a significant amount, resulting in a much cleaner environment.

The biggest obstacle in the transition to electric cars comes with the consumer's impression of the ability of these cars to replace a standard gasoline car, with the consumer having to make minimal sacrifices. Many electric vehicles possess low performance and a limited range per charge. The average consumer for the time being is sticking to gasoline powered cars, as they are often seen as more fun to drive and there is never a problem with having to recharge/refuel, as gas stations are nearly everywhere.

Perhaps if faster charging solutions became available (the average charge time for an electric vehicle is 8 hours), or batteries became standardized for the the purpose of quick switching at such stations, the electric vehicles would become much more likely to have success in the market. Also, there may need to be better solutions for those who live in apartment complexes, and do not have the ability to charge their cars at home. Lastly, for those who need the ability to travel long distances, maybe a gasoline/electric hybrid is the best solution at this point in time.

The timing may not be right at this point in time for electric vehicles to take off and become a practical choice. However, just as the authors in the original article tried to point out, the time will come, provided we create the infrastructure to support them. Only then will we be able to begin really changing our vehicle's carbon emissions and its effect on the environment.

Refer to the original article here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6891Y520100910

Facebook Places: Useful or Concerning?

Comparing and contrasting in today's news sources has become commonplace when determining whether or not one product is better the other, one alternative is safer than another, and so on. This is strongly evident in a recent article discussing Facebook Places and whether or not the location based service is over-sharing information.

The issue at hand when it comes to Facebook Places is privacy. How much privacy is worth giving up for another service? Should friends be able to announce to potentially hundreds of people where you are without your consent at any given time? These are questions that are raised by many concerned groups who worry about people stalking them or crimes being carried out using information from a site such as Facebook.

However, those who support Facebook Places argue a very good point: Facebook does give you the option to turn the service off. They feel that if a user has a problem with the way in which Facebook implements the service, then the user should simply not use the service.

In the end, the many people agree that the option should be left up to the individual user. Each person should be able to evaluate the situation themselves using the compare and contrast technique, and ultimately come up with their own decision. Unfortunately, those who are not very tech savvy may have trouble figuring out how to disable or enable these settings, and when a service such as this is enabled by default, even the little time they must spend on figuring out how to change the setting can have them concerned.

In my opinion, Facebook should change the way it selects the default settings. Facebook Places should be disabled by default, if only to allow for the peace of mind of the individuals who are skeptical of people knowing their location. However, outside of that, maybe it would not be such a bad idea to leave the ultimate decision up to individual users. If users invest time in learning the pros and cons of each situation, they will be able to make better decisions later on, and it in the case of this article, better understand what effect each decision has on your privacy.

Refer to the original article here:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/09/03/facebook.places.reaction/index.html