Blog #2: Reading Response

The beginning of the book Literary Journalism has been very interesting. I have always written essays in the standard way: giving examples, putting my opinion, following my thesis statement. However, this chapter helped me to analyze deeper my way of writing and I discovered several new ideas that will improve my writing making it much more interesting both for the reader and for me.

For instance, I really enjoyed reading about Ted Conover.I appreciated his idea of "Partecipant observation" (13), which allows the writer to testify not just what he/she saw, but actually what he/she experienced on his/her own skin. Surely enough, when the readers will get to know that what they are reading is an actual experience of the writer and not just a mere story-telling, their interest about the article will grow more and more!

Most of the journalists believe that the most powerful weapon in journalism is patience. For instance, Mark Singer believes that a journalist never has to forget to :"shut up and let the subject talk. Don't be as intrusive, litterally as intrusive, in an interview. Just let the subjects talk and they will reveal things to you" (8). Joseph Mitchell as well agrees with the same technique: "I am not easily bored. I can talk to anybody. If I talk to them long enough, the most amazing things come out" (11). Joe Nocera also stresses this very important point: "In any kind of journalism you have to build a bond of trust. You have to get people to let their hair down when you're around, to be willing to forget about you as a reporter, and to say things" (6).

Of all the journalists in this chapter, those four are the ones who catched my attention the most. The reason is that they tought me a very important lesson: if you really want to write about a topic, you have to be willing to get into that in the best way you can, making as much researches as you can and if it is possible you should actually experience what you are going to write about. Moreover, you have to have the patience to listen to people since in journalism is not your point of view that counts the most but the one of who is actually doing the experiences who want to write about.