Compare Writing Styles
Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:00 amTwo news sites in English:
a) South China Morning Post (SCMP) (scmp.com)
Name of news article : HK jobless rate unchanged, but firms cautious dated August 19, 2009
b) The Standard (thestandard.com.hk)
Name of news article : Unemployment remains at 5.4pc dated August 18, 2009
1) Having read both articles, I realized that SCMP used a more comprehensive and informative style whereas the Standard took a rather brief and concise style in reporting the same event. The SCMP garnered many previous relevant datas, namely, "The last time the jobless rate reached 5.4 per cent was in November 2005", "The Labour Department recorded more than 45,433 vacancies in the private sector last month, down 29 per cent year on year, and off 1.2 per cent from June", "Census and Statistics Department data shows the number of people with jobs last month dipped slightly, by about 900, to just over 3.5 million from June", etc. However, the Standard only quoted, "The number of jobless increased by around 10,800 to 213,800 in the three months ending July, while the workforce increased by around 9,800 to an all-time high of 3,719,000, according to the Census and Statistics Department". No more relevant datas could be furnished for readers to have a better knowledge of and feasible comparison with the current situation.
2) Against the aforesaid backdrop, I found the SCMP article easier to read as I could easily get the big picture of the incident being reported with relevant datas abound. On the other hand, in the absence of useful and concrete datas, the Standard may paint an unfair picture of the reported incident and so misgive their readers.
3) Whilst it is irrefutable that green management should be the prime concern for the editors of newspapers as well as their readers, I think most of the readers with IT knowledge and computers or PDAs would choose to subscribe on-line editions of the newspapers. On the other hand, those readers that do not have easy accessibility on the computers or PDAs would choose the printed version.
a) South China Morning Post (SCMP) (scmp.com)
Name of news article : HK jobless rate unchanged, but firms cautious dated August 19, 2009
b) The Standard (thestandard.com.hk)
Name of news article : Unemployment remains at 5.4pc dated August 18, 2009
1) Having read both articles, I realized that SCMP used a more comprehensive and informative style whereas the Standard took a rather brief and concise style in reporting the same event. The SCMP garnered many previous relevant datas, namely, "The last time the jobless rate reached 5.4 per cent was in November 2005", "The Labour Department recorded more than 45,433 vacancies in the private sector last month, down 29 per cent year on year, and off 1.2 per cent from June", "Census and Statistics Department data shows the number of people with jobs last month dipped slightly, by about 900, to just over 3.5 million from June", etc. However, the Standard only quoted, "The number of jobless increased by around 10,800 to 213,800 in the three months ending July, while the workforce increased by around 9,800 to an all-time high of 3,719,000, according to the Census and Statistics Department". No more relevant datas could be furnished for readers to have a better knowledge of and feasible comparison with the current situation.
2) Against the aforesaid backdrop, I found the SCMP article easier to read as I could easily get the big picture of the incident being reported with relevant datas abound. On the other hand, in the absence of useful and concrete datas, the Standard may paint an unfair picture of the reported incident and so misgive their readers.
3) Whilst it is irrefutable that green management should be the prime concern for the editors of newspapers as well as their readers, I think most of the readers with IT knowledge and computers or PDAs would choose to subscribe on-line editions of the newspapers. On the other hand, those readers that do not have easy accessibility on the computers or PDAs would choose the printed version.