kimilseung

I read the Seattle Times, so it might just be that paper; but I have noticed a difference in the writting culture compared to back home.

If I am reading a story, the writter will refer to a player in the story by name, this confuses me as I have not really been reading anyones names, just kind of skimming things like names. I find I have to go back and re-read so I know what part this person is playing in the story.

If I compare this to newspaper style back home:
Seattle Time might say: "Tomlinson says he was in another city at the time"
The Brit tabloids might say: "Drunken chav says he was with his underage lover in secret hideaway"
The Brit broadsheets might say: "The defendant claims to have an alibi"

The Brit papers makes it clear what part the player has in the story, the US one does not.

Has anyone else noticed this, is it like this in other newspapers in America? does it cause you to have to re-read stories?

I should have adapted by now and pay more attention to names.

Sally Redux

I have noticed it, you almost need a little notebook of who is who.

Octang Frye

Writting?

Jerseygirl

Spelling police?

Octang Frye

I think it's valid if one is criticizing other people's writing.

robin1234

Yes, they do it all the time and it is a very odd convention. You tend to see it in the medium-to-long investigative type articles in the New Yorker or Harpers, for instance, as well as newspapers. Sometimes you have to go back four or five paragraphs or more to find when the person was introduced or named, but, like you, I generally do not make a mental note of the person's name when she/he was first introduced. Sometimes these type of conventions may be driven partly by house style, even by the legal department...

GeoffM

A greed!

US news stories seem to be very human-oriented, emotional, like a thriller novel. UK news stories tend to be crisp and to the point, almost heartless. Horses for courses I guess.

Anian

I hate the use of the phrase "area man", which I can't read the same way after the Onion spoofed it so many times.

And using commas instead of the word 'and':
"Man, dog, went to store"

Ridski

Ah... You mean: "Local store greets dog, man"

Lothianlad

Needs to undergo a course in Estuary English where the dropping of "t's" is mandatory.

g1ant

One of the things that pisses me off about magazines over here is the way that they never keep the stories in one piece. They seem to cut them into chunks and....... (continued on p85)

GeoffM

true

rpjs

I find the "quality" press here incredibly dull. Turgid, ponderous writing. The NY Times is especially up its own fundament: like the Independent on steroids. I came across a copy of the NY Daily News the other day though and was impressed: a lot better than the UK tabloids and it even had an advice column for new immigrants - it'll be a cold day in hell before you see that in a British tabloid.

And yes the cont. page 94 tendency is supremely annoying!

jemima55

I hate the way that news items are made into homespun little stories, so that we find out that the victim of a cruel crime was a boy scout leader who never forgot his mom`s birthday and looked after his elderly neighbours. Do we need the full character portrait?
Also found it odd when a guy was arrested for a string of burglaries and the next day I could read all his past criminal convictions. Can anyone get a fair trial that way?

Titchski

Got a way to go with spamming this thread before we get closure on this post