News Reporting

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• News Reporting
• and Writing
• Gene Mustain
• Assistant Professor
• Journalism and Media Studies Centre

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Writing Tips

• A sentence should contain no unnecessary words,
  for the same reason that a drawing should have no
  unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary
  parts. This requires not only that the writer
  make all his sentences short, or that he avoid
  all detail and treat his subject only in outline,
  but that every word tell.
• The Elements of Style

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Writing Tips

• If any man were to ask me what I would suppose
  to be a perfect style of language, I would answer
  that in which a man speaking to 500 people,
  idiots or lunatics excepted, should be understood
  by them all, and in the same sense which the
  speaker intended to be understood.
• Daniel Defoe

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Writing Tips

• If language is not correct, then what is said
  is not what is meant if what is said is not what
  is meant, then what ought to be done remains
  undone.
• Confucius

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Writing Tips

• The news media serve a large, diverse audience
  to reach the most people, newswriters must
  present information in a clear and interesting
  way. Every word tells.

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Writing Tips

• Good newswriting is more than the use of simple
  words. It is
• Using the correct words.
• Composing sentences carefully.
• Finding a pace and tone that matches the
  material.

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Good Writing

• 1) In general, keep sentences short. But vary
  their length.
• Short sentences pack power. They are dramatic.
• Short, medium, long, short, medium -- variety
  yields rhythm, and keeps the reader moving
  through the story.

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Good Writing

• 2) Simple sentences, not complex.
• Simple Tung is resigning as chief executive,
  probably for a combination of reasons.
• Complex Tung is resigning as chief executive
  because he did not like Hu Jintao criticizing him
  and because he is tired of constant fighting with
  Legco and because, as a former businessman, he
  wasnt prepared for the political aspects of
  running a government.

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Good Writing

• 3) Use words people know.
• Do not send people to the dictionary. Dont give
  them reasons to put your story down.

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Good Writing

• 4) Dont use unnecessary words, as this paragraph
  does.
• A metal workshop in Yuen Long where a powerful
  blast killed three workers and injured four
  others on Saturday has been found to have had no
  license to store acetylene cylinders. (31 words)

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Good Writing

• How about this?
• A metal-working shop in Yuen Long where a
  Saturday explosion killed three workers and
  injured four was not licensed to store gas
  cylinders. (23 words -- 8 less)

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Good Writing

• 5) Use active voice use strong verbs.
• Active A leaking tank triggered the explosion.
• Passive The explosion was caused by a leaking
  tank.

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Good Writing

• 6) Write the way people talk direct and plain,
  not like this
• The manager of a money-lending firm, who pleaded
  guilty to dishonestly appropriating 2.4 million
  from his employer, was described by two
  Democratic Party legislators as a honest man
  with many good qualities.

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Good Writing

• How about this?
• Two Democratic Party legislators say a man who
  stole 2.4 million from his boss is a honest man
  with many good qualities. (22 words 11 less)

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Good Writing

• 7) Use words that help readers see, not ones that
  keep them in dark
• The first and only International Anti-Corruption
  Newsletter is being published on the Internet by
  the Independent Commission Against Corruption
  (ICAC).

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Good Writing

• How about this?
• Hong Kongs corruption watchdog is publishing the
  first Internet newsletter designed to help
  investigators around the world to catch crooks.

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Good Writing

• 8) Develop your own style and voice.
• From Elements of Style Every writer, by the
  way he/she uses language, reveals something of
  their spirit, their habits, their capacity and
  bias.Put your own brand on your writing.

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Good Writing

• 9) Try to express, not impress.
• Even though writing is an act of ego, you want to
  express ideas, not impress people. So use clear,
  simple language. The minute you try to impress,
  to show off, you will fall flat on your face.

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Good Writing

• Best tip for last
• 10) After youre done, rewrite it. And then
  rewrite it again.