Good writing
This column is one of the best I've read in a while. I'm not one of the shocked Miami Dolphins football fans who can't believe the 27-year-old running back star just quit in the prime of his career. It doesn't matter to me that the Dolphins were to begin training camp in one week, and that they were counting on their star. But I read all 1,369 words. And by the time I got to the end, I understood Ricky Williams and his fans.Good writing is under-appreciated by most of us, myself included. I realized this recently when I read "Headline Justice: Inside the Courtroom -- the Country's Most Controversial Trials" by legendary court reporter Theo Wilson. (Sadly, she died before she could do the book tour; my cousin did it for her.) In the book, Wilson lamented about the fact that good writing was no longer respected by editors. She included bits of various articles in the book, and she was right; you don't see as much good writing in newspapers these days.
Sure, the goal is to get the facts and news to the reader. But I think we all too often compromise writing for speed and brevity. I wonder if there's a way to fix that.
Posted by Layla at 9:40 PM, July 25, 2004
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