When telling someone else’s story, it is incredibly important to get everything right. This is why teachers encourage students to let the featured person read it before publishing the type of report they make. It is essential to make sure your quotes used as evidence are word for word because even the slightest word change can say something very different. For example, in past English lessons, we identified key phrases in various news articles used to tell a story. Changing a word like protesters to rioters can entirely persuade the audience from one side of a story to another.

I had just read an article called “The rare condition slowly paralyzing my arms and legs.” This was a fascinating yet upsetting article to read. I realized that when “Xavier Alford,” a filmmaker and the writer of this article, was cautious with the language used when he told stories of others with the same illness as him. The way he talked about each person was very matter-of-a-fact-like and written so that it doesn’t make any topics covered a controversy; in other words, it was clear he told their stories accurately.

I think it is vital when writing stories to be neutral or propose different opinions with no bias. Otherwise, it can send the wrong message, or even in worse cases, mislead the audience and influence them to do something caused by false information/inaccurate use of words.