writing for media, catharine lumby

Writing for Media

Elements of Style

Active Language

• Instead of writing:

• "Kate will always remember her first trip to New York"

• We write:

• "Kate's first visit to Africa will always be remembered by her.”

Active language

• "Kate's first visit to Africa will always be remembered."

• The problem with this sentence is that it is now indefinite: who is it that remembers Kate's visit : Kate or the whole of Africa?

Economy of language

• Omit needless words. 'That', 'which', 'the question as to whether', 'in order that', 'the reason why is that', 'owing to the fact that' are good examples of needless words.

Economy of language

• Use definite, specific, concrete language. • For example, don't say: "She displayed an

aggrieved air as a result of her traumatic marital circumstances." Say: "She was furious when she discovered her husband's affair."

Economy of language

• Avoid the use of qualifiers.

• Words such as 'very', 'little', 'really', 'quite', 'almost' etc are better replaced with a more concise word. For instance, 'furious' is better than 'very angry'

Economy of language

• Avoid excessive use of adverbs and adjectives.

• Well-chosen nouns and verbs should do most of the work. For example, don't write 'he ran quickly', write 'he raced'.

Economy of language

• Put statements in a positive form.

• 'She was not very often there at the right time' can be condensed to 'She was usually late'

Economy of language

• Avoid jargon, technical terms and euphemisms.

• Prefer ‘heart attack’ to ‘cardiac arrest’

Economy of language

• Avoid cliches.

Do not turn every fire into a ‘raging inferno’ or pronounce every escape ‘lucky’.

Economy of language

• Strive for clarity.

• Clarity should be your foremost goal. Remove all unintentional ambiguities from your sentences. When you find yourself fighting your way through syntax - don't try to fix it. Start again and break the sentence into simple thoughts.

Economy of language

• Don't be tempted by fancy words