Assignment: “Raising the dead”

1. What captivates you about the story? How does he paint a picture for the reader? Cite the passages that are most compelling to you.

►The article is a good one because it does not just tell what happened – it shows. Noah Shachtman used appropriate words clearly, that is why it is easy to understand and imagine what he is saying. For me, the most exciting passages are the ones where the author starts to describe the scene. Examples are:

“Maybe the waters of Eagle Creek weren’t sickly greenish-brown, like rust and blood and industrial waste had been collecting there for two generations.”

“A few feet into the reeds, a golden retriever’s bloated corpse lies on its side, flies picking at its liquefying eyes and genitals. To the right, among rash bags and soda ups, sits a pile of brown and white deer fur, loosely attached to leathery skin. And everywhere there are mandibles and animal hips, femurs and skulls, hair clumps and bone chips. A roadkill graveyard.”


2. Who is the target audience for this publication? How does the story relate to them? Does the story appeal to other demographic people as well, and if so, why?
► Since the article touches a serious topic, which is about a crime, the expected audience would probably be the adults. The story is realistic and it also shows the experience of someone who is already working and earning. With these, the readers can relate to the story. However, Raising the dead appeals to other set of audience such as the youth because it involves the things which they can relate to such as the internet and other modern devices.

3. What “rules” did the writer break?
► Although the story painted pictures in a reader’s mind through his words, Shachtman must have loved to use more words. Because of that, he violated William Strunk’s rule 17, “omit needless words”.

4. How does the writer end the story? Why is it effective?
► The author ended the story with a direct quotation of the subject’s dialogue. He tied everything together as he gave a picture of what Todd Mathews was already like after the mystery was solved. It is effective because the words are striking and it leaves the reader’s emotion and interest still high.