Obituary

Christian Gilbert

Journalism

6 Feb 2014

A Meaningful Sendoff to One of the Best

                The obituary I reviewed was for the late great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series. It is dated, being from July 8, 1930, but the lead and the format of the story seem to be closely aligned to modern obituary. The leads goes “Conan Doyle Dead From Heart Attack”, the style may be changed today, but it does do its primary goal of catching the reader’s attention. Reading just that line, you get pulled in. The next few paragraphs fill in the reader with a general overview of Doyle life. One difference between this article and today’s are headings that break up the obituary before each segment.

                As far as what it includes about Doyle, it covers his name, his age of 71, his job as an author and noted spiritist. Another critical component to a good obituary is naming the remaining family, which the article goes over. In the first section, it names his wife, and his two son and daughter. For a person such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it is important to list some of his achievements, such as his Sherlock Holmes novels and his convection to spiritism.

                For famous people, obituaries are always longer. Compared to modern obituaries, this one was slightly longer but does go over most of the important points. Being broken up into sections may attribute to the length of the article. It spends a little too much time on certain subjects, like the many sections around his spiritism that add up. The article could have been shortened if they compressed his works in literature and spiritism into two sections. There is also an article on the family and the son that could be cut out, or at least reduced to a mention in more substantial sections.

                All in all, this is a good obituary that covers what it is supposed to. Of it were to be formatted to more modern standards, it would need to lose some extra weight. The heading and the first few paragraphs are fine and have no need to change. It could cut out the section style and simplify each into a neat paragraph or two. Then each paragraph can smoothly transition between each new part. By doing this, it shortens the obituary and would match the layout of modern times.