The “Schoolhouses” article is perfect for the Southern Living Magazine as it tells the rise and fall of important historical movements on the front of education for African American children in the south. I found the story to be both interesting and moving and I enjoyed reading it. The idea that these schools were built during the Jim Crow era to give African American children a place to learn and mature is uplifting. However, the majority of these schools built in 883 counties across the south, are now gone which gives the article a somewhat melancholy tone.

The article didn’t seem to have a lead, but rather jumps right into the nutgraf. The very first sentences give an an historical background and overview of what the article is going to be about. One thing I enjoyed about the article was its structure. The introduction explains about the history of the schools, where, when, how , and why they were built, and what has become of them. Then, the body paragraphs discuss particular schools which makes the story come to life and breaks it up in a good way. The article wasn’t bombarded with facts and sources it seemed almost like someone was telling a story and I liked that and felt that it fit with the whole old southern theme.

When you read articles in these magazines about how Brad Pitt is tired of life with Angelina Jolie and wants to get back together with Jennifer Aniston but shes being stood up by John Mayer who has been having a secret fling with Jessica Simpson you begin to assume this stuff is made up, at least I do. So I began to ask myself, one: what makes these articles so appealing if most people assume the content isn’t real and how do these magazines maintain their readership, and two: if these magazines are citing sources like “an Aniston insider” or a “friend close to George Clooney” than why is the content always so unreliable or doubtful? Also is it legal to write these made up things about these stars or does it constitute as slander?  Its incredible how a paparazzi could snap a picture of Benji Maden and Nicole Richie in a certain stance and than a body language expert will analyze their body position and conclude that they are not in love, and then people like me and you read and buy it. 

In conclusion, I guess I’m trying to say that these magazines I always loved to read and gossip about are no longer appealing to me because I know what an actual good article should look and sound like and these don’t make the cut. I always thought about writing for the entertainment business but it seems like that the majority of it is fabricate and that’s not something Im into.

I felt that the lead went beyond just the first two sentences and was actually in the first four paragraphs because all four set a scene of the author actually performing yoga. The fifth paragraph serves as a nutgraf because it is where she briefly begins to explain what the article is about, yoga as a practice and its many ways that is has evolved.

I understand that this article was written for a yoga magazine and the readers would be familiar with the content and different poses, but I don’t do yoga nor do i know anything about it and often while reading I felt lost because I couldn’t picture what she was describing in my mind. This article is not for a wide audience, rather a niche audience of those who do yoga. I did, however, appreciate the concept, how the practice of yoga has evolved to include other art forms like gymnastics and dance. I liked the structure of the article how it was broken up into different sections according to the types of yoga, it made the article easier to digest. I also think she used sources wisely and to her advantage. She makes herself sound much more credible the way she incorporates her quotes. The fact that she writes the article in first person, something we don’t see as often, was actually a good technique in this instance because she does make someone who has never done yoga or who isn’t familiar with the practice feel more relatable to her because she seems rather inexperienced with these new modern forms of yoga as well, even though she does basic yoga regularly. As she illustrates her emotions, you connect with her on a certain level and it adds to the story. My favorite part of the article was definitely the end. The quote she uses is good and it does an excellent job of coming full circle, relating back to the nutgraf and summing up all that the article focuses on. (“I’m with the folks who think that, for yoga to stay alive as a discipline and practice, it needs to evolve along with the people who are doing it.”)

The lead is both scene setting and anecdotal. It is very funny and does a good job of introducing Dylan in a fashion that reflect his quirky, eccentric persona. The woman calling the police as she sees Dylan walking outside is both original and informative (paints a picture of Dylan for someone who doesn’t know much or anything about him.) The nutgraf isn’t necessarily packed with facts but it sets the tone for the rest of the article and transitions nicely from the lead.

This article did a good job of using sources to its advantage. Not only are there 7, which is a solid amount, but they are all interesting characters. These are sources where you want to here what they have to say. Dylan is known to be in his own world in a sense, so hearing things about him from other people is refreshing and interesting (seeing him in a new light.) However the best part about these sources is that they don’t necessarily like him (especially Jackie the bartender) because even though he is a legend, not everyone loves him. Anyone can write a good flattering article about Bob Dylan, he is a musical genius, but to analyze him critically, that takes guts and good writing style and tone. It seems as if the author isn’t crazy about Dylan himself and he is using this piece to reflect that opinion and share it with readers. The author used a good descriptive style which I admired and enhanced the piece for me.

The lead is the first paragraph and I’m not sure if I like it or not. It was pretty straight forward. I wanted to continue reading the article but not because the lead was intriguing or creative but because I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant. The nutgraf in my opinion, is in the following three paragraphs. Those three paragraphs illustrate the article’s main theme: a “flexitarian” diet (balancing a vegetarian and carnivorous diet and how it benefits athletes.) I like the article’s format, it broke up the content and made it easier to read and not lose focus. I like the idea of giving the different tips and then having a “try it” for each one. As for the kicker, I didn’t like it. I feel like it was very abrupt and redundant because it re emphasizes the point that they made throughout the whole article.

Being an athlete, this article is of particular interest to me, but the way that the author executed it makes it enjoyable and informative for anyone.

The article we had to read for class, “Healthy Guide to Eating Out,” was both well written and informative. The article is very appropriate for the magazine and is appealing to its target demographic. The lead did a decent job of setting a typical scene of a family heading out to dinner at a “favorite neighborhood restaurant.” The lead doesn’t do too much to make me want to really continue further with the article (but I find the topic interesting so I probably would continue on if I just happened to come across this article on my own time.) The nutgraf, found in the second paragraph does a goo job of informing the reader of what the article is about, fast food chains and guiding your kids to eat the right things. The caloric information and amount of grams from fat becomes too many numbers in one short section, but I recognize that its presence emphasizes a point.

When it comes to the body or the meat of the article, I really like how it is broken down and structured. By giving different steps, the article somewhat resembles a how to- how to get your child to eat healthier in a world of fast food restaurants and processed foods. Each different step gives different advice and assess different unique situations and it makes the content more absorbable. This technique is effective because there is so much information packed into this article that by separating it all into different clear and concise steps, the information becomes easier to swallow. 

There is no kicker here, rather the article leaves the reader with “3 health busters to avoid.” I found this to be somewhat effective because the hole article is spent telling the reader what to do in order to guide their children to healthier eating habits and what things to eat instead of other things, but the very end just leaves you with three uniform things NOT to do. It changes the pace and leaves an impression in the readers mind.

I think this article is overall well written. It shows a lot of research was done through the use of statistics and nutritional facts of varying food items. The article is very informative but sounds a little to research papery at points.

This article was one of the best ones we have read, in my opinion. It reflects the fact that Discover Magazine targets educated non-professionals because it was about medical training programs, but I, a non-medical professional, still found it extremely interesting. The content had potential to be boring, but the way it was written kept it entertaining. The lead, though a bit long, was a great scene setter and made me want to continue on reading. The nut graph (third paragraph) where the author reveals that the entire scene in the lead is virtually stimulated, was a very cool technique because it was not expected. The article was exciting to read because the advanced technology it examines is truly quite fascinating. This article is intriguing to both future medical professionals whom will potentially use this technology, and somewhat assuring to someone like myself, who will never be a medical professional, who likes the idea of future physicians to have this type of training. This article didn’t have a “kicker” but it wouldn’t have been appropriate. The article is meant to be informative and possibly a bit shocking (in a good way.) The article gives an insight into the medical world and its benefit from advancing technology, a perfect fit for Discover Magazine.

It is interesting that HHMI is an internet based magazine. The emergence of the internet has put magazines and news papers at risk and many have adverted to putting their articles online as it is, so HHMI seems to be cutting to the chase and facing the inevitable. 

The article’s content was not interesting to me but I was able to take away that Cheryl Moore was an ambitious, multi-tasking woman. I noticed that a significant portion of the article was about changes Moore was attempting to make that weren’t science related, which made the article a little more tolerable for readers outside of the general target audience, like myself. Moore noticed that her coworkers, along with herself, were working so hard that they would quickly eat lunch at their desks, so she took it upon herself to introduce the idea of a cafeteria where coworkers can grab a bite to eat and  experience the opportunity to “bump into each other.”

Second was an article about women in a small African country who are forced by their parents to be sent away to camps where they are fed an average of 16,000 calories a day to make them gain immense amounts of weight. The article explains the culture and how women who are fat with fleshy roles are considered incredibly sexy. The article contrasts this culture to our Western one where there is a fanatical craze to be thin. This small African country’s perception of fat as sexy derives from many many years ago when a woman who was overweight reflected her ability to find a wealthy husband who could keep her fed during times of scarcity.  I found it interesting that the magazine included this article in a beauty issue, even though it completely contrasts America’s idea of beauty, but it was still so interesting and informative. Angelina Jolie may be considered a sex symbol here, but she’d be considered disgusting, frail, and useless over there.

This article reminded me of the first article we had assigned. This entire Smithsonian magazine publication targets a niche audience, one that I am not a part of. This article, while its content seemed really interesting, was boring and hard to read. I was able to get the gist of what the article is about, however the language and the point by point storytelling method the author used made it very unentertaining for me to read. I often found myself having to pause and regroup my thoughts because I would forget about the last several things I had just read. As we discussed as a class for the first article, it is understandable that the author had to use some scientific language that I wouldn’t understand, however in this article I felt more overwhelmed and bombarded by the language. The author gives the reader no break from the scientific terms, it seems like they were being listed at some points and I became less and less interested.

The lead is very straight forward  and almost frames the article’s essential question of investigation right in the first sentence, which I liked, but I lost interest shortly after reading it. This article frustrated me because I could tell I would find the information/content very interesting, being that its about creatures that roamed the earth hundreds of millions of years ago, but they way the author presented it all, I was never able to get into it.