Today I read the column 'Song writer helps kids summon courage to stop bullies' by Krista Ramsey. Ramsey describes the new project of a Cincinnati recording artist, Keenan West: To partner with P&G and travel to different high schools and encourage the students to stand up against bullying.
I believe that the best written line in this column is: "Now the gym has become as quite and still as an SAT testing site," (Ramsey). This line follows a brief paragraph where Keenan West is quoted as he asks the students to put themselves in a bullying victims shoes. The simile Ramsey used effectively carries the message that the students truly understood what West was saying. It allows the reader to picture a gymnasium of students putting all joking aside, and ardently paying attention to what West had to say. Also, the syntax of this sentence should also be noted. Instead of hiding it away in a paragraph, Ramsey purposely made it stand out on its own, which gives it a greater importance.
Krista Ramsey's writing style mainly consists of long observational paragraphs that help the reader set the scene, or short impactful sentences that draw the reader's attention. In the article 'For better vision, kids need time outdoors', an observational paragraph was effective: "The kid who used to walk home from school looking at houses and trees now rides home staring at a screen not much bigger than his hand," (Ramsey). This line allows to reader to easily picture a student focusing their attention on their electronics, instead of their surrounding. This imagery creates the right setting for the topic of the article. In Ramsey's article 'Super Bowl QBs score points for great style' there is another example of a descriptive paragraph: "It's a hopeful sign in a nation that now accepts flip-flops and jeans as appropriate wear for weddings, graduations, awards banquets and funerals," (Ramsey). The article is about how dressing well is becoming more and more scarce, and the quote describes how casual attire is becoming more and more common at formal events by describing situations we all have probably seen but not paid any attention to. A third example of this style of writing is found in the article column I read today about summoning courage to stop bullies: "Keenan West... warms up the crowd by calling for volunteers, including teachers, to join him on the gym floor and show off their dance moves... The fact that the exercise ends – with West's guidance -- with cheers and applause for the participants instead of jeers and snickers, feels like a minor miracle," (Ramsey). In this example found at the beginning of the article, Ramsey allows the reading to mentally visualize the students being able to summon courage and do something that they'd normally be embarrassed about. Similar to the other two articles, this style of writing effectively sets the atmosphere for the rest of the piece.
If I were given the opportunity to meet Krista Ramsey, I would ask her how she herself would describe her writing style. I would also ask her how she decides what is worth writing about. A third question would be how she took up journalism as a career.
