El Salvador Article Analysis

Here's a link to the original article.

This article starts off with a summary lede. "Nearly 20 years after the Salvadoran Army killed six Jesuit priest in one of the most notorious events of El Salvador's civil war, a criminal complaint filed in the Spanish High Court has revived hopes that those behind the massacre could face trial." It details some of the event's history and gives only the who, where, and what. That would seemingly make the lede weak, but since the lede already gives part of the piece's background, this would only serve to make it bulky and awkward. 

The lede is followed by a good deal of elaboration on the subject, giving the reader the when and the how. The second paragraph also provides the nut graf. This is then followed by a killer quote, a compact expression of the piece as a whole, and providing information from a direct source. 

The story goes on to provide the entire history of the event that the article covers. In this, it follows both a background/details structure and also serves as an update piece to something that happened 20 years ago. The piece ends with another source and a quote from her looking ahead to what may happen in El Salvador even if the trial in Spain fails. 

Minibus Article Analysis

Here's a link to the article about to be analyzed. 

The article begins with a summary lede: "A powerful explosion tore into a minibus in Russia's tumultuous Caucasus region on Thursday, killing at least eight people in what investigators said might have been an act of terrorism, possibly by a female suicide bomber." This lede gives the reader the who, what, when, where, and even some of the why. If I were writing this story, I might have changed the order and put the information about the people first, because they are what's truly important in the article. 

The following paragraph provides elaboration on exactly what happened and where, as well as giving the so what - 30 people were wounded in the blast. This is the nut graf. All this and the lede are properly attributed to investigators and officials. Later in the article, the article is given credibility by using a North Ossetia parliament member, a spokeswomen for the area's police, and the U.S. ambassador to Russia.

The piece doesn't have much of a structure. If any, it follows the background structure, and serves merely to provide information on what happened in this event. Information from what's occurred formerly in the region is provided as well. The article ends well, with a killer quote from the U.S. ambassador, John Byerly, which also serves as a look-ahead ending.