For my research I came across two news articles that I found capture the genre of writing I’m aiming for. The first from the University of Colorado Denver articulates a very academic friendly text crediting many of its sources through in-cite citations. The article does a very effective job of including many voices referencing academic researchers and highlighting direct quotes from first-hand accounts. It presents a wholesome narrative keeping the reader engaged and able to jump to related or more detailed issues through hyperlinks. What I like especially is the way it breaks down the text in big headline topics that are controversial or straight to the point. The first headline, for example, called “What We Talk About When We Talk About Diversity” serves as an introductory starting point for the authors and gives a clear picture of what the subject (and later paragraphs) will be about. Other ones such as “BIPOC – Never Heard of It?” and “Forget Minority and Underserved” shift focus to critical areas that need to be addressed and reevaluated for modern discussions.
Overall I find the way the article is written works particularly well keeping in mind the reader’s attention span with hierarchical takeaways (like italicizing text, increasing font size, inserting block quotes). What I think the article could improve in, however, is by increasing the variety/ type of breaks. In the second article I found from CNN, I liked the way it includes key images with captions and related videos. In this example, it varies by adding historical, geographical, and audio information to round out the reader’s understanding. Though longer to read and less effective in being direct with the audience, the strategies I liked of the two will be helpful in crafting my final project.
Great examples of a couple of key approaches–
1) attention to visual organization (hierarchical section headings, use of bold/italics/headlines to highlight key info)–this helps the reader locate important information and follow the logical chain
2) mixing media (images, audio, video, text)–this gives the reader multiple modes of engagement, which increases the likelihood that something will work well for them
Both use an accessible style and tone (the first employs “you” as a way to draw the reader into the universe of ideas), and provide extensive off-ramp opportunities (in the form of embedded links) for readers who want to know more. There’s a lot you can work with here.