Effect on Readers of Different Types of Writing

Two articles from the supermarket tabloid Weekly World News from August 27, 1996 are carefully crafted to try to make the reader believe the extraordinary claims being made. Kevin Creed writes an article entitled "Woman's Corpse Stays Fresh as a Daisy--for 82 Years!" while Trace Hedley writes "Canals on Mars Are Full of Fish!" Both stories have titles ending in an exclamation point, and the writers each use an exclamation point for their opening sentence as well, a sentence that reiterates the claim made in the title. The device shows that the writer knows that the claim is extraordinary and yet fully believes it. Such publications have a reputation for accepting extraordinary claims as true and even for inventing stories out of whole cloth. The writers thus know they have to overcome some resistance if they want to be believed.

In both stories, the author appeals to authority. Creed begins his story, "Experts are trying to understand. . . ." He ends with the claim that this story will be investigated by five university scientists (though the university is not identified) and will be written up in the American Scientific Journal ne

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Some common words found in the essay are:
Robert Frost, Diversity Life, Mars Fish, World News--he, , World August, NASA Pentagon, Scientific Journal, Fresh Daisy--for, Kevin Creed, weekly world, world august 27, august 27, august 27 1996, world august, weekly world august, extraordinary claims, 27 1996, corpse stays, stays fresh, woman's corpse stays, corpse stays fresh, real-world event, woman's corpse, diversity life,
Approximate Word count = 855
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page)

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