Raising the dead Q&A

What captivates you about the story? How does he paint a picture for the reader? Cite the passages that are most compelling for you.

What captivates me about the story is that though it is very long, it kept me interested through his vivid description of each scene. Also, the fact that he is talking about applying technology to real-life -- in a NOT SO conventional way captivates me. Aside from making it as vivid as possible, the author painted a picture on how it really smell, sound and feel in the crime scene. The article itself is a feast for the senses.

These are the passages that are most compelling for me.

" Brittle, artsy kids - like Matthews was in the '80s - don't usually win popularity contests. But Matthews had a gentle, infectious charisma, and he oozed empathy. "I always felt sorry for people who were made fun of. There were the kids that stunk, there were the kids that wore ragged clothes," he says. "It just wasn't right for anybody to be treated like that, just because of where they were born, who their parents were. Circumstance."

"She resented the time Matthews spent in front of his monitor instead of with her. They fought - Lori attacked him with words and fists, threw things. They wrestled to hours-long stalemates. He once cut her near the eye with his ring. After another fight, she moved out for nearly four months. Matthews couldn't put the case away. "I felt as guilty as if I were the one responsible," he says. "I was tortured by it."

"A few feet into the reeds, a golden retriever's bloated corpse lies on its side, flies picking at its liquefying eyes and genitals. To the right, among trash bags and soda cups, sits a pile of brown and white deer fur, loosely attached to leathery skin. And everywhere there are mandibles and animal hips, femurs and skulls, hair clumps and bone chips. A roadkill graveyard."

"Making the matches is mind-numbingly tedious: Families post all over the Web, searching for missing loved ones. Local coroners and cops, nudged by the Doe Network, upload pictures and vital statistics of their Does. Groups like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children do the same. Networkers comb through it all like they were playing the kids' card game Concentration, digitized by Patricia Cornwell. Comparing death dates on coroner sites with last-seen-on dates on missing persons sites. Checking for scars, tattoos, anything that distinguishes the person from a crowd. Googling until the coffee runs out."

"There's nothing I can do about these people in my cemetery," Matthews says. But the Tent Girl, "this is one I can do something about." He doesn't seem to notice that he's still talking about her in the present tense.

Who is the target audience for this publication? How does the story relate to them? Does the story appeal to other demographic groups as well, and if so, why?

The techies are the target audience for this publication. The story relate to them because it featured technology ( e.g. google and the internet) and its application to real life situations. It appeals to other demographic groups as well, for it also featured solving a crime mystery, which most demographic groups will be interested in as well.

What "rules" did the writer break?

He didn't follow the 'Less is more" rule in describing the scenes and situations vividly. He also didn't end the same way he began. In the beginning of the article, the author gave us a picture that is like those crime scenes found in "mystery" or "police reports". In the end, the author gave us an insightful and more personal view of what happened as he provided us with details of him walking and talking with the brother of "tent girl" .

How does the writer end the story? Why is it effective?
The writer ended the story through a personal perspective, divulging his conversation with tent girl's brother and how it is visiting the grave of the tent girl (e.g. what it looks like, etc.). Though it broke the rule of ending the same way you began the story, it was very effective because somehow it sends goosebumps through your spine and make the whole picture that the writer painted, linger on your mind.