Journalistic Writing Building the Skills, Honing the Craft

by Knight, Robert M.

• ISBN13: 9781933338385
• ISBN10: 1933338385
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-01
• Publisher: Marion Street Press, LLC

Summary

Aimed at those pursuing careers in creating public prose, this is the definitive handbook for aspiring journalists. Offering budding writers suggestions on how to improve their skillseven when faced with a tight deadlinethis guide also reviews many elements essential to the occupation such as utilizing strong nouns and verbs, paring down adjectives and adverbs, describing with concrete detail, and avoiding cliches and the passive voice. Going beyond a standard presentation of information, this reference encourages students to put its methods into practice, making each and every word count and maintaining the appropriate energy level in their content. With expert analyses of real-world articles, this book also provides advice on avoiding poor sentence structure that can kill reader interest and includes perspectives on diversity sensitivity. Accessible, humorous, and engaging, this revised edition offers a practical approach for those seeking to improve their communication skills.

Author Biography

Robert M. Knight has been an adjunct professor of journalism at Gettysburg College and Northwestern University. He has written for the Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Reuters and The Washington Post. He lives near Gettysburg, Pa.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Why and How Good Writing Counts
The Deadline Dilemma	p. 19
Getting the Subject from One Mind to Another	p. 20
The Jargon Trap	p. 21
The Blessings of a Well-Crafted Lede for the Reporter and Reader	p. 22
The Time-Saving, On-Deadline Formula	p. 23
The Style Trap	p. 24
Some Basic Guidelines for Developing Writing Skills	p. 25
A Word about the English Language	p. 26
Bigger Does Not Always Mean Better	p. 28
The Beauty - and the Bane - of a Big Vocabulary	p. 29
Exercises	p. 31
Is It Newsworthy?
The Lede, the Story, the Medium	p. 33
Audience and Audiences	p. 34
The Prime Criteria of Newsworthiness	p. 35
Human Interest: The Grab-Bag Criterion	p. 40
Newsworthiness for the Eye and Ear	p. 42
Designer Newsworthiness: Creating "News" for Ratings and Profit	p. 46
Taking the Electronic Hits	p. 47
But Does It Matter?	p. 49
Exercises: An Improbable News Day	p. 50
Leading the Reader On
The Lede: The Critical Element	p. 53
Avoiding Dull or Generic Ledes	p. 60
Leading with a Question	p. 64
Leading with a Direct Quote	p. 65
Ensuring the Lede Makes Sense	p. 66
The "Nut-Graf" Approach	p. 67
Getting to the Point	p. 68
Avoiding Lede Intimidation	p. 72
Exercises	p. 74
Building the Story
How Not to Conduct an Interview	p. 81
Bringing the Story Together	p. 84
One Reporter's Example	p. 86
When to Stop Describing	p. 91
Developing the Breaking Story	p. 92
Developing an Issue by Using Specifics	p. 95
The Feature: Writing about How and Why	p. 97
Writing for Magazines: A Category in Search of a Definition	p. 104
The Magazine Feature	p. 107
Exercises	p. 111
The Craft
The Rewards of Murky Writing	p. 115
Separating the Craft from the Profession	p. 117
Avoiding Wordiness	p. 119
Caution: Concise Writing Doesn't Always Enhance Clarity	p. 124
Eliminating Redundancy	p. 124
Compounding the Sentence with Complexity	p. 128
Correctly Using "That" and "Which" (and "Who" and "Whom")	p. 131
Writing with Precision	p. 133
Using Parallel Structures; Making Your Numbers Agree	p. 137
Sexist Language versus Good English	p. 140
An American Dilemma?	p. 143
Your Antecedents Are Showing: Dangling Participles and Misplaced Modifiers	p. 146
Writing Directly, Without Apology; Avoiding Tiptoe (or Weasel Words)	p. 148
Replenishing the Word Supply	p. 150
Exercises	p. 152
Active Voice, Action Verbs
The Relationship of Active Voice and Action Verbs	p. 155
Active Voice and Honesty	p. 157
Active Voice, Clarity and Crispness	p. 158
Action Verbs and Imagery	p. 160
Being (or Linking) Verbs	p. 162
Creativity Killers?	p. 163
Exercises	p. 164
An Appearance of Honesty
Journalistic Ethics: An Oxymoron?	p. 167
A Passion for Accuracy	p. 168
Avoiding Generalizations, Assumptions, Pomposity and Overblown Statements	p. 170
Euphemisms: When Tact and Truth Don't Agree	p. 172
Fudge Marks: How Not to Embellish Your Prose	p. 175
Of Opinion and Ethics: The Elusiveness of Truth	p. 176
Don't Editorialize Unless You Are Writing a Column or Editorial	p. 177
Respect the Reader	p. 179
Make Sure the Reader Knows What You're Writing About	p. 181
Quotations and Attributions: Taking the Onus off the Reporter	p. 183
Is the Reporter Making this Up?	p. 186
The Power of the Direct Quote	p. 187
Keep the Reporter Out of the Story	p. 189
Exercises	p. 191
The Eternal Cliché
Word Exhaustion and the Death of Originality	p. 195
Avoid the Empty and the Trite	p. 196
The Making of a Cliché	p. 197
Clichés to Avoid	p. 198
Apprentice Clichés and Slang	p. 202
Juggling Jargon: the Mark of a Lazy Writer	p. 204
Business Jargon	p. 205
Cop and Criminal Lawyer Lingo	p. 208
Journalese	p. 209
The Comic Value of Clichés	p. 212
Exercises	p. 215
Red Flags and No-Nos
The Need to Exist Versus the Need for Surgical Removal	p. 217
The Big Red Flag: "That"	p. 220
Special Red Flags: "There is" and Similar Usages	p. 220
Another Special Red Flag: "Feel"	p. 221
Red Flag Tenses: Perfect Doesn't Always Mean Good	p. 222
No-nos: Only Use Them in Direct Quotations	p. 223
Special No-nos: "Currently" and "Presently"	p. 224
Rules to Write By	p. 225
Exercises	p. 227
Broadcast Style
Medium versus Message	p. 229
Comparing the Media	p. 231
Writing for Broadcast: How to Cater to the Ear and Eye	p. 232
Some Broadcast Style Pointers	p. 237
The Anchor and the Reporter	p. 238
Variations for the Visual Media	p. 242
An Alphabetical Digest of Broadcast Writing Rules	p. 244
Exercises	p. 248
Various Points of Style	p. 251
The Beautiful Mongrel
Learning the History of English: the Point	p. 289
English Language; Celtic Expression	p. 291
A Question of Pedigree, or Lack thereof	p. 292
Geoffrey, Will and the Boys	p. 294
Dr. Johnson and the Beginnings of Modern English	p. 297
English, the Equal Opportunity Borrower	p. 298
Bibliography	p. 301
Index	p. 307
About the Author	p. 315
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