Close Reading - Assignment 5

In G.O.P Iowa Debate, Rivals Target Newt Gingrich
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/us/politics/in-gop-iowa-debate-rivals-target-newt-gingrich.html

It goes without saying, that the G.O.P Republican debates this year have been nothing but interesting and slightly entertaining. Articles like this come out everyday about how a candidate has suspended his campaign, called another out on something they did as teenagers and pointed fingers. This article does just that through sophisticated language and details that only seem to point out more flaws about the candidates.

The article throughout has very sophisticated language the surprised me at first. Zeeleny and Rutenberg used words "veered", "deflected" and "tart" to describe the actions and tones of the candidates as they questioned each other. Language like this continues all throughout and looks very formed and carefully constructed to make it as strong an article as it can possibly be. By using such language, I found the article easier to read and understand while it was still written on a professional level by people who know what they're doing.

The other thing that struck me was the detail. Near the end of the article, the authors talk about  the candidates backgrounds while focusing particularly on Mr. Romney's status as the "son of an automobile executive". While details like this help the reader to understand details about the candidates, it struck me odd that details like this would occur for every candidate and quite often.