News Reporting and Writing Ch. 10

obituaries. one big reason my parents read the newspaper. a reason i feel many people read their local papers. that and the police beat.
i don't think that i am yet at that age where i wonder if any of my childhood friends or neighbors are passing away, so it's something i normally skip when reading the paper. so i never really realized how much goes into writing an obituary. and how particularly written it has to be.
because most of the people who read a certain obit had known the person who passed, they read with a very critical eye, and will catch the slightest misprint. therefore, the writer has to be extra careful to double check facts, dates, and times. other rules that i've never thought about is the language of the obit. how a person dies "unexpectedly" not "suddenly" because all deaths are sudden. or a that a person dies of injuries "suffered" not "received."
i feel that everyone deserves a good obit. whether written by a professional or a family member that submitted it to the local paper. i just hope that when it's time for mine to be printed its big enough to be put in the NYtimes or USAtoday, not that i wouldn't be happy with the good ol' Daily Messenger. hah.