February 8th Compare Articles

Two articles about the same game can be very different, and can clearly demonstrate the way writing styles can affect an article. 

They can also show the difference in the style based on where the article is being published. 

There are several articles about the UConn victory over Louisville on February 7th. ESPN and the Hartford Courant published the articles I chose to focus on. Right from the get go the reader can see the difference between these two articles. 

ESPN: No. 1 UConn Tops Louisville Again, 84-38: Title game rematch proves mismatch as No. 1 UConn tops Louisville, 84-38 by Associated Press Writer Jeffrey McMurray 

Lead: “Tina Charles had 20 points and nine rebounds as No. 1 Connecticut breezed by Louisville 84-38 Sunday in a rematch of last year's national championship game.”

The Hartford Courant: UConn Women Crush Louisville; Streak At 62 by John Altavilla 

Lead: “By now it's clear the UConn women do not play normal games that follow familiar scripts. Truth is, they play games that are caricatures, the features super-sized, exaggerated, larger-than-life. You almost need 3-D glasses to watch them play.”

The ESPN article gets straight down to facts, and the entire article follows suit. On the other hand, the Hartford Courant’s article is more opinion based, and evokes emotion from the reader. The ESPN article was written with the intention of being able to be published all over the nation, while the Courant article is more localized. Hartford is the capital of the state of Connecticut, and if you’ve even been in Connecticut when a UConn basketball game is going on then you know that the amount of Husky pride is overwhelming. So it is not surprising that Altavilla goes ahead and claims that his Huskies play “larger-than-life.” 

The ESPN article informs its readers much quicker than the Courant’s article. It follows more of an upside down pyramid outline, including the information and facts at the top, and going on to expand on the background and minor details about stats and significance of records and standings. 

The second sentence of the ESPN article: “The victory was UConn's 62nd in a row, extending the second-longest streak ever in women's NCAA Division I basketball, trailing only the 2001-03 Huskies' mark of 70 straight.”

This information did not come out until the seventh sentence in the Courant article. However, what the Courant article had that the ESPN article lacked was quotes from the players and coaching staff. Including quotes made the story more personal and more of a human-interest story. The people in Connecticut want to feel connected to the team, and they feel like they are part of the franchise. The readers in Hartford and around UConn want to know what the players and coaches feel and think, because they want to feel with them. 

The ESPN article is not meant to entertain or stir up some laughter or emotion from the reader. Instead it is meant to stay neutral and inform the reader about the game. Of course the Courant article has all the same information in it, but the author of the article is clearly proud of his Connecticut team. 

When explaining the difference between this year’s and last year;s Louisville team, Altavilla wrote: “This time, there was no Angel McCoughtry, no Candyce Bingham and no Deseree Byrd. Oh yes, this time things were very different.” The article doesn’t go into much more detail about the Lousiville team while AP’s McMurray expands on the details a bit more. He wrote 3 paragraphs explaining how the Cardinal’s McCoughtry graduated to the WNBA last year, and how injuries have affected several other key players.  

The photo slideshow feature on the Courant’s website was a great supplement to the story. These women can jump!