Newspapers, a Medium of the Past?-報紙、雜志過時了嗎?
Newspapers, a Medium of the Past?
It was on the morning of 12th, Sep. On hearing that an unbelievable catastrophe had happened in New York, I rushed to a news stand and anxiously asked for a copy of newspaper, only to be told that they had already been sold out. Though I knew the details of the disaster on TV later the day, I still bought a pile of newspapers and read them with gusto. At least to traditional readers like me, newspapers still hold an important position in our heart.
Some people regard newspapers as a medium of the past and predict that they will be replaced by TV and the Internet in the near future. They point out that the two new media have the advantage of promptness and vividness. Through live broadcast of news events, TV viewers can feel that they are on the spot, seeing what"s actually happening with their own eyes. As far as I"m concerned, however, newspapers may provide the readers with factual reports as well as certain viewpoint. When people argue that with the development of the Internet, people now have an easier access to news media through PDAs, mobile phones and PCs. Wherever one wants to know what"s happening in the world, he no longer needs to bother searching for a bookstore.Instead, he would surf online and find exactly what he wants on a website.
However, there are more people, me included, firmly hold the opinion that newspapers are still indispensable to our life.First of all, Newspapers gain us a deeper insights into the events. A well-written report, reasonable and forceful, probing into the core of the topic, provoke our thoughts on such issues as morality, justice, value and so on. While TV feasts our eyes with flash pictures, newspapers enrich our minds with sparkling wits. Secondly, though with great potential, the new media are not as popular as newspapers. A retired worker would rather buy an evening paper on his way home, instead of taking pains to learn how to operate a PC. A senior manager would prefer to skip through a Wall Street Daily rather than waste his precious time in front of a TV on the bus set. Last but not the least, people like to read newspapers just out of habit. They prefer the lovely smell of a newly printed newspaper to computer screen which makes their heads spin. They want to see words in black and white, and keep them after reading, if necessary.
Considering the fact that radios have not been driven out of the market by TV, and book sales not affected by the invention of e-book, I would draw the conclusion that despite the increasing popularity of new media, newspapers still play an important role in people"s life.
簡 評
學生常常感到寫作最困難的莫過于開頭。經常是苦思冥想，抓耳撓腮，卻苦無始句。實際上，文章開頭並沒有固定的格式。隻需把主題引出，即把全文的論點引出，任何寫法都可以。本文作者以自身的經歷開頭，親切平實，形象生動，真實可信，很容易引起讀者的共鳴，從而鋪陳全文主旨。常用的開篇方式還有很多，如引用名人名言佳句，列舉一組令人震驚的資料，定義某個術語，引出辯論的正反觀點等等，也可以像本文這樣採用一段真人佚事或編纂一個故事。
另外，本篇文章有一定的篇幅，論述詳盡，分析比較了報紙與新生媒體形式如電視、網路的各自優勢。這是一篇比較類的文章。一般說來，此類文章可採用獨立闡述對比事物或交替說明對比事物兩種方式。本文採用了後者。作者穿插介紹了電視的形象生動、如臨其境，網路的快捷以及傳統報紙的休閒和導向性。
(點評教師：趙蓉)