This piece is plot-driven, yet builds character, as it illuminates conflicts created by human encroachment into fire-prone areas. The piece offers both adventure and context. With skillful asides, Foster alludes well to some of the “backstories” of the American West: the frontier culture that persists among those who make their homes in the hinterland, the [...]
Tag Archives: Associated press
Small Town Justice
December 27, 2005 – 12:00 am
This story provides facts, reveals wrongs, while weaving a good tale and involving the reader in the lives of its characters. In the words of the piece’s editor, Bruce DeSilva: “In telling the story, we disdained the usual term-paper-indictment approach of most investigative reports and instead spun the yarn. The story not only got huge [...]
Kidnapping Grandma Braun
April 4, 2005 – 12:00 am
This is an efficient, well-paced and engaging series about the kidnapping of an 88-year-old woman. It’s a crime tale, classic in its what’s-gonna-happen-next unfolding. It’s plot-driven—this is not a piece with in-depth character development—but that’s to be expected in a story like this. And it’s what a lot of people want to read. The series [...]
The Making of a Rescue: 17 Minutes of Terror
March 10, 2005 – 12:00 am
This is a clean, concise and efficient narrative of a dramatic rescue. It’s a newsy topic that would ordinarily have begun in this fashion: “A four-year-old boy was rescued yesterday after the car he was riding in….” Instead Carter lets the story unfold. The story is so clean, Carter has made it look easy. But [...]
