Writing An Obituary Analysis

What is an obituary? More than merely a 'good-bye' to the deceased, this is a farewell which can, tell details of their life. An obituary can also serves as notification that an individual has died and details of the services that are to take place. In this essay, I’m going to explain who writes an obituary, the purpose of it, the theme or genre it has, and describe the qualities of an effective obituary.

According to Marilyn Johnson, the author of The Deadbeat, she explains that those who writes obituary are desk workers, “most disembodied contributors to newspapers and magazines.” Most obituary writer never meets the person, but they will use telephone to communicate with each other. Obit writers can be describe as invisible. They write about people who have ceased to exist. However, an obituary can be written from someone other than the desk workers. A family or friends can choose to write their own obituary.

The purpose of an obituary is to remember those who departed.

It is written like a eulogy, where it not like a journalism. They are not news stories or aim to be comprehensive. It is announcing a person’s death and offering detailed biographical information. However, it doesn’t have to someone who died in your family to read an obituary about them. You can find obituaries in the internet, newspaper, or magazines. Those who are really into obit will cut it out of newspaper and save them.

Obituary can be identifying as more than one genre. It does not have to be sad. It can be entertaining, a poem, or funny. Moreover, Marilyn Johnson tells that “obituaries are blooming as literature.” Meaning that more and more people are finding it interesting and it getting popular among the audience who seem to enjoy them, but don’t get it confuses as part of literature. Obituary are mean for those who are deceased, it’s not a literature where you can analysis a lot of information from

it.
What make a quality of an effective obituary? There are many way to make an effective obituary depending on the audience it trying to reach to. I’m going to use an obit I find as an example. The obituary I chose reminds me of a drawing that I did back in art class during my middle school years about an artist who was successful during the 1990s. The quality of this obituary is average. It was you expect of a common obituary that are found in newspapers or websites. What I do like about this obituary is that you get to know the person as if they are alive. Getting to know what they did in their lifetime or the type of people they are surrounded by. It feels as if I met a new friend, but it does lack some emotion or mood.
It would be an effective obituary, if it starts off the highlight of what that person has did in their life time instead of telling the audience when or how the person had died. It would draw the reader attention. Starting the obituary of the how person died makes the reader uninterested and it loses the reader of actually reading it. Also, I find most obituary are short, which are fine. Nevertheless, I would prefer the obituary to be a little bit longer to fit in more information. Short obituary tend to make the detail in the story to be missing or lack explanation. As a reader, I prefer more emotion or mood in obituary or story. It can help the audience relate or understand more clearly what the deceased person was actually like.
After reading this essay, you would see that I have explain who writes an obituary, the purpose of it, the theme or genre it has, and describe the qualities of an effective obituary. Remember, those who writes obituaries does not always have to be sad. It can be a source of entertaining or funny. It can be written as a eulogy or a poem. Also, an obituary is written about the deceased person lifetime and not as a form of literature.