Prose style for newswriters
MOST of this book is devoted to such ticklish but mundane problems as whether accused criminals should be addressed as Mr in news reports. "Style" though has another more general meaning. It may refer to the way words are chosen and used; we might refer to a particular author's style, or a profession's style, meaning a way of writing peculiar to a person or situation.
There is an appropriate style for writing news reports in Hong Kong. Happily the local writer does not need to attempt the "Nude vicar in sex romps shock" genre, or even the less objectionable but less interesting "Fire heroes in mercy dash" type of thing. A plain simple English will suffice.
But this is not as easy as it sounds. The great enemy of any writing done in a hurry is the cliche -- the ready-made phrase which is approximately right and pops into the mind and onto the page without conscious thought. Hong Kong newspapers are free from many of the cliches which disfigure newswriting in England, America or Australia; Hong Kong newspapers have cliches of their own instead. Bear in mind George Orwell's advice on this topic: never use a phrase which you are accustomed to seeing in print. Tough but effective.
For the rest there are some time-honoured rules:
Prefer short words
"Fire" is a better word than "conflagration", "died" is preferable to "expired", "crashed" to "collided". Words should be specific, concrete and if possible vivid. "Red and blue" is better than "brightly coloured"; "heavy rain" is better than "bad weather". Avoid words ending in "-ation" and any combination of which the second half is "conditions" or "situation".
Avoid obscurities, avoid jargon, and above all avoid things like this:
Both environmental variables and personal attributes come together to influence the voter's disposition towards the political world, which consists of cognitive, affective and evaluative perceptions of political reality.
I am not sure what this means. An anonymous civil servant (quoted by Gowers) once said that confused writing may accurately convey confused thoughts.
Prefer short sentences
A short sentence is easier to understand than a long one. Many of our readers are not native speakers and need all the help they can get. Sentences must usually have a subject, a verb, and an object. They will usually be most economically arranged in that order. This is known as a simple sentence and simple readers like it.
Writers on style will advise you that too many short sentences produce a staccato effect which is uncomfortable for readers. In practice the temptations of the longer sentence are enough to ensure that readers get the occasional rest. So concentrate on keeping them as short as possible. Some things which can help:
Only one idea per sentence
The most common problem, especially with intros, is trying to say too much at a time. You must make your mind up. Remember you are writing a story. This means you need to attract and keep the reader's attention. Readers of news are volunteers. If you make life difficult for them they will stop.
Be active
Use of the passive voice always means a longer sentence and usually means a depressingly limp one as well. "He hit me" is clearly both better and shorter than "I was hit by him". The longer the sentence the more it needs an active verb.
Be positive
A sentence about what something was not can often be rephrased in a less negative way.
Consider the following pairs:
was not successful
the plan will not proceed
police have not captured X
he did not consider
|
failed
they cancelled the plan
X is still free
he ignored
|
Some care is needed that you do not change the meaning. Do not tamper in this way (or any other) with direct quotes.
Cut modifiers
Most writers use too many adjectives and adverbs, particularly when trying to be descriptive. Watch out particularly for those which creep in because they are used to another word's company, producing pairs like:
- actively pursued
- totally unacceptable
- constantly monitored
- bold initiative ... new initiative ... bold new initiative
- major row/development/surprise/whatever
Cut quotations
Most people do not talk in the crisp economical style we want for news purposes. So we try not to use their words as delivered. The uses for quotations are:
- to substantiate a point you have made in summary in your intro. If you say in the intro that a politician attacked the Governor you must give enough of his or her actual words to make it clear that the use of "attack" is justified.
- to capture subtleties or colourful bits of speech.
- to provide a break and a change of pace in what would otherwise be a solid slab of reported speech.
Otherwise use reported speech. Reporters must master the rules for writing reported speech, which you will find under R.
Cut linking words
Teachers of English as a foreign language like to get you to start your sentences with words like "moreover", "however" and such like. These impress examiners but they are not used in news writing. Usually you do not need a linking word. People expect the next paragraph to be about the same thing as its predecessor because that is the way news stories work. Occasionally you can use "and" or "but" at the beginning of a sentence if you want to.
Don't be vague
Unknown quantities like "very", "really", "quite" have no place in newswriting.
Don't qualify absolutes
We know we cannot be slightly pregnant. We also cannot be quite impossible, glaringly obvious, absolutely essential or almost unique.
Do not use ...
The former ... the latter ... which are irritating when the writing has been printed in narrow columns.
Hereafter, aforementioned and other legal monstrosities.
Such -- much overused in Hong Kong. In most cases it can be replaced by "this".
ALWAYS read your work over
and when doing so check for errors of grammar, spelling and meaning. Remember thousands of people read your newspaper. If you make a mistake someone is going to spot it, and may well write to the editor to show off his learning.
back to "HOST"