In this unit, I learned about the 5ws and H and I annotated several news article using Kami and annotated several CNN 10 videos with TurboNotes. The teacher assigned these assignments for our class because it would help us when we write our news article, get used to the format of the news article and practice for annotating for the summative. I also practiced writing articles before this summative. Our homework for some days is to observe things around us and record them down. In class the next day, we would have to choose one observation and write an article. Then, we peer edit for each other and see where we did well and where we can improve.
For the summative, I had to write a news article and in a group, put together all the articles of the group members. The newspaper should look like a real newspaper. Also, I had to annotate and read two articles and write a compare and contrast paragraphs about the two articles.
The newspaper article:
Compare and contrast paragraphs that I wrote:
Compare
The tones of the two articles are objective and journalistic. The articles are written in third person format, since it is a newspaper article.
In both articles, there were information on Hurricane Harvey, damages the hurricane caused, quotes, pictures and they ended with quotes. In “Texas Faces Massive Flooding”, the article’s very first paragraph stated when and where the hurricane happen and says, “It was the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years, causing widespread flooding and destruction (paragraph 1).” Later in paragraphs 4, 5, 6 and 7, it talked about the speed of the wind and other informations on Hurricane Harvey. In “Catastrophe in the Gulf”, the first three paragraph gave information on the hurricane. It talked about where and when this hurricane occurred and also the speed of the wind, the amount of inches the hurricane left, how much water the hurricane is going to leave and how strong this hurricane is.
The damages Hurricane Harvey caused were described in paragraphs 2, 3, 8 and 9 of “Texas Faces Massive Flooding”. In “Catastrophe in the Gulf”, the damages were described in paragraphs 6, 7, 8 and 10. Both articles talked about the number of people who passed away, the amount of damages the hurricane caused and how long it is going to take for Texas to recover from this catastrophe.
The articles included quotes. “Texas Faces Massive Flooding” quoted The National Weather Service and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. There are also other parts where the author didn’t directly quote what metrologist and President Trump said, but the author summarized it. “Catastrophe in the Gulf” quoted the National Weather Service, Greg Abbott, Maya Wadler, President Trump, and Brock Long.
The articles also contained pictures. There were pictures of the destruction, people helping others, people evacuating and maps of the hurricane’s route.
Finally, both articles ended with quotes. “Texas Faces Massive Flooding” ended with, “‘It breaks your heart,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a video on Twitter on Sunday. ‘But it’s Texas. We’ll get through it.’” (paragraph 10).” “Catastrophe in the Gulf” ended with, “‘This disaster is going to be a landmark event,’ Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long said Sunday on CNN. ‘We’re setting up and gearing up [to be in the affected areas] for the next couple of years’” (paragraph 13).”
Contrast
The difference that was the most obvious was the organization. In “Texas Faces Massive Flooding”, the article was organized first with an introduction. Under the title, there was a subheading stating, “Rescue efforts in Texas underway as storm moves to Louisiana.” The introduction included when and where the hurricane occurred, damages and the people who helped the damages. Then there is a heading that says, “A POWERFUL STORM”. In this section, the author talks about hurricanes in general and slowly it leads to Hurricane Harvey and its information. For example, the author talked about the wind speed of the hurricane. The section also includes what meteorologists and what the National Weather Service says. In “DAMAGE CONTROL”, the author talks about the number of people have evacuated, how long it would take to recover from this hurricane and what Art Acevedo says. In “Catastrophe in the Gulf”, the article included more topics. This article didn’t include a subheading. First, the article talked about the hurricane. Second, there were informations on injuries. Third, there were solutions to the problems and how others helped. Finally, the article tells us where the hurricane is heading and what the government is going to do about the hurricane. The author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” focused on the damages more than the author that wrote “Texas Faces Massive Flooding”. Also in “Catastrophe in the Gulf”, there were no heading, but only paragraphs.
The formats of the two articles and how they annotate the pictures are also different. In “Texas Faces Massive Flooding”, the pictures for this article are mostly small with a one sentence caption. As for “Catastrophe in the Gulf”, the pictures inserted were enlarged and easy to read with captions that are mostly two sentences. The captions of the pictures in this article gives much more information than the other. An example is the last picture in “Catastrophe in the Gulf” where the caption stated, “Evacuees from Hurricane Harvey in Austin were given shelter by the Red Cross. Shelters like this one were set up across southeast Texas to care for people displaced by the storm.” There were a lot of information, such as who gave the shelter to the evacuees or where were these kinds of shelter located.
I only annotated one article. This was my annotation: