Atchafalaya+IRR

Atchafalaya By Ianic Roy Richard (well not the article, the reflection on it)

The first thing I remember about reading article is its descriptive first paragraph. If there is one thing I can easily give McPhee credit for, it would be his ability to describe scenes. His eloquent description of the Mississippi is amazing and it allows the reader the chance to piece an image in their mind. He uses his techniques well, like personification when he says that "the Mississippi River from its mouth". All in all his first paragraph is terrifically written.

He also has a tendency to always insert himself in his stories, as he seems to do it in pretty much every article I have read. This technique is kind of odd when compared to other articles but it is effective. Because the reader is getting the information from John himself, within the article, it's almost like a direct line with him. If he was giving out facts without inserting somehow into something that resembles a tale, the reader would probably take away less information. I know I would.

In this story, McPhee lets his bias out seemingly a lot less unintentionally than in previous pieces. With sentence like ," A nation had developped, and the nation could not afford nature" and "for nature to take its course was simply unthinkable", McPhee seems to be pretty obviously taking sides. I think that it is kind honourable that he would do that since it is like he is acknowledging that he has a bias. Everybody does, we have biases on everything and we often try to pretend that we don't. Journalists are told to write objectively on issues that they sometimes will have very strong opinions on, how is that efficient? I don't know if McPhee is an environmentalist but from this story, I would venture that he has some "green" opinions in him.