Good writing Media Writing I

Telling a good story “There’s nothing to writing. All you do it sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” Red Smith, newspaper sports columnist

Telling a good story Most news stories are written, read and gone quickly, but that doesn’t mean that they should not be well written. Quality, wit and knowledge will serve you well as a communications professional.

Telling a good story Begin with good information Details Concrete verbs and nouns Senses Smell Touch Taste Hear See

Telling a good story Get as much of a feel for the story as possible Talk to more than just the main sources

Good writing Clear Concise Concrete Shows rather than tells Figures of speech

Telling a good story Precision Use exactly the right word. Don’t guess. Be suspicious of the Thesaurus on the computer Don’t add bias Not always “he” Use gender neutral terms Don’t allow your language to stereotype

Telling a good story Precision Use exactly the right verb form “The bill will make it legal” vs. “The bill would make it legal.” Say what you are thinking! Don’t make your reader guess. Make numbers real Compare the unknown to the known

Telling a good story Clarity Simplicity Short sentences Correct grammar and punctuation Put the modifier and the modified together Don’t split infinitives (watch where you put “ly” words)

Telling a good story Clarity Write coherent stories Chronology can be a trap Start with what is most important Support that point and work down the list in the same fashion An outline may help Illustrate the correct relationship between cause and effect Transitions (but they can’t carry it alone) Parallelism

Telling a good story Concrete examples Show, don’t tell Tell how big, how loud, how difficult Things you can touch, or see Need details Show, don’t tell Good writing appears to more than one of the five senses Set the scene Don’t tell readers what to think, let them see it for themselves

Telling a good story Figures of speech Analogy Similes (like or as) Metaphor (says one thing is another)

Telling a good story “There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I’m inspired, only four revisions are needed.” John Kenneth Galbraith, economist.

Telling a good story Ernest Hemmingway wrote at least 1,000 words per day, and then edited the passage down to 100 words.

Elements of Style Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas. These commas usually come in pairs Never separate a noun from its restrictive term of identification Billy the Kid The novelist Jane Austen

Elements of Style Omit needless words in order to due to the fact that prior to it goes without saying Jewish rabbi hot water heater widow woman new record