ELS 111
STYLISTICS
LANGUAGE OF NEWPAPER REPORTING
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Newspaper Reporting
Your main task as a journalist is to help people understand what is happening around them; in their village, in
their country and in the world. Most readers or listeners will not have your knowledge of language, so you must
simplify it for them. You should be able to examine the most complicated issues and events then translate them
into language which your audience can understand. If you fail in this, people will stop buying your newspaper or
tuning in to your radio or television station. You will be failing in your job.
For many journalists today, English is the main language used for newspapers or magazines, radio, television or
the Internet. This book is written in English, so these chapters concentrates on the English language. It is worth
remembering, however, that even a language as common as English is not exactly the same all over the world.
There are differences between, for example, UK English and American English. There are often also differences
in the way English is written or spoken within individual countries. It may sometimes be difficult to decide what
is correct in the English used in your country. Language is developing all the time, and your country may not yet
have a well-established set of rules for English. If this is so, you should use the form which is accepted as
correct by the most literate educated people in your country. Above all, use words and grammar which are most
easily understood by your readers or listeners.
ENGLISH SYNTAX 3
NEWSPAPER
We have therefore restricted our attention to what is generally
considered to be the central function of a newspaper, to inform, and
consequently to the notion of newspaper reporting.
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• Style books: You may get some guidance on such things
as sentence length, punctuation or word usage from your
organisation's style book. These are books which lay
down rules for language you must follow in your particular
paper or broadcasting station. You should ask your editor
or chief of staff for a copy of your organisation's style
book. Unfortunately, many small or new organisations do
not have their own style book. In these chapters, we try
to give you some general guidelines for language use and
writing style. Use this advice to create your own style
guide. For more details on how to keep and use a style
guide,.
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• Short, sharp, clear sentences
Whether you write for newspapers, broadcasting or the
Internet, you should always aim for words and sentences
which provide the maximum amount of understanding with
the minimum risk of confusion. This generally means keeping
words and sentences short and simple. You can use long
words, but you must be sure they are doing their job
properly. In Chapter 5: Writing the intro, the golden rules,
we said that many words are like fat and lazy people sitting
back without paddles in a canoe. Remember, there is no
room in your sentences for fat and lazy words. If words do
not add to understanding, throw them overboard.
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Sentence length
There is no single rule about the length of sentences in
news writing, but you should set yourself a target for the
maximum number of words you use. We suggest that you
never use more than 20 words in any sentence, except in
special circumstances. If you follow this rule, your
sentences will be simpler, there will be less room for error
and you will make a more efficient use of words.
An alternative way of judging the best length for your
sentences is to count the number of ideas or concepts you
expect your reader or listener to understand. Compare
these two examples of the same story. Notice how version
A tries to pack all the ideas into one sentence, whereas
version B splits them into three separate sentences:
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Story A
Four aircraft passengers, the pilot and three people travelling
in a car were killed when a twin-engined Beechcraft Baron
aircraft hit an electric power line and crashed near Nadi
airport this week.
Story B
Eight people died when an aircraft crashed near Nadi airport
this week.
The pilot and four passengers died when their twin-engined
Beechcraft Baron hit a power line. The plane then crashed
into a car on a road near the airport, killing three more
people.
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Notice that, although Story B is 12 words longer than
Story A, it is split into three sentences. None of the
sentences in Story B is longer than 20 words. Get
someone to read both stories out loud to you, and
you will quickly see that Story B is easier to
understand.
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LIVELY LANGUAGE
The words you use will help to make your story easy to understand. Later, in Chapter 11, we give lists of words
you should avoid, either because they are difficult to understand or because they are fat and lazy and do not help
to push your sentence along.
As we said earlier, long words are not bad in themselves, if they are the only words available to explain a
particular meaning accurately. However, the English language is large and varied so there are usually shorter
alternatives which do the job just as well as long words.
Many young journalists think that they have to use the whole of their vocabulary when writing even the simplest
news story. You may wish to show off your knowledge of the language, but remember that your knowledge is not
what matters. The vocabulary of your reader or listener is more important.
Some journalists also believe that they can only add drama or depth to a story by adding words. We get sentences
like:
The man ran swiftly across the street to help the defenceless boy who was being brutally beaten.
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USING NEW WORDS
Many careless writers introduce new words without thinking how they
will be understood by ordinary people. Sometimes they change nouns
into verbs, in order to make sentences shorter. The danger with this is
that the resultant verb is often less precise than the original phrase
and is less readily understood by people. Avoid using verbs such as:
To author (use to write)
To hospitalise (use to admit to hospital or to be in hospital)
To parent (use to be a parent or to act like a parent)
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You must be very careful about introducing new words which your readers or listeners might not
understand. This is especially important if the word is in their second language. Stay with
familiar words.
However, if you cannot avoid using a new word, you must follow it immediately with an
explanation. For example, many English language newspapers and broadcasters use the Russian
word glasnost quite freely when speaking of the changes in the Soviet Union. When they first
began to use it, they needed to explain that glasnost means "the opening up of a society which
has previously been rigidly controlled".
There are also times when new words or usages have been readily accepted by society before
the media decide to use them. It would be foolish, for example, to fight against the use
of farewell as a verb in the South Pacific. People often speak of `farewelling a friend'.
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SENTENCE STRUCTURE
It is not enough to write short sentences using simple words. You also have
to construct your sentences in such a way that the ideas are easy to
understand.
Example:
Three children have been admitted to hospital with suspected food
poisoning. (Passive voice)
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SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
You should avoid starting a sentence with a subordinate clauses. Subordinate
clauses usually begin with words such as "while...", "as...", "although...",
"even though...", "because ..." and "despite...". They are separate phrases
within a sentence which help to put the main part of the sentence in context.
In the following example of bad sentence construction, the subordinate
clause is in italics:
BAD
Although there has been a 20 percent increase in murders this year, the
Prime Minister has vowed not to bring back hanging.
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The main point of the sentence is that the Prime Minister has said he will
not bring back hanging. The subordinate clause sets this promise in the
context of the rising crime rate. In the example above, putting the
subordinate clause at the beginning of the sentence may confuse your
readers or listeners. They expect to hear the main facts first. Rewrite the
sentence as follows:
BETTER:
The Prime Minister has vowed not to bring back hanging, despite a 20 percent increase
in murders this year.
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And and but
Even simple joining words like and and but can cause confusion if
they are not used wisely. These words are
called conjunctions because they join things together. The
word and is quite acceptable when used to join together two
words or phrases:
The man and the woman had two daughters and a son.
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PAIRED NEGATIVES
Paired or double negatives in English are not only bad grammar ("he has not got no pawpaw"),
they usually create confusion, especially in the spoken word. Although logically paired negatives
simply cancel each other out, many people do not use them in this way. Many other languages
have totally different rules about paired negatives, and even some British dialects use the paired
negative to add stress to a negative idea.
For example, the sentence "He was happy" is easy to understand. So is the sentence "He was
unhappy". But what do you understand by "He was not unhappy". Was he happy or unhappy? Do
you see the confusion? Make it a rule: avoid paired negatives.
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objectivity
Your language must not only be easily understood, it must be fair. You should not use
words which give a biased view of a person, an event or a situation.
Many words develop special, biased meanings because of the way they are commonly
used in a community. In some cases, you cannot avoid using such words. Take care that
the words you use reflect the meaning in the community and not your own opinions.
In particular, you should be careful about using words which describe disputes or
conflicts. In these cases, each side to the dispute may choose to use the words which
reflect well on them and badly on their opponents. As a journalist, you should try to
steer the middle course.
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The most obvious cases of bias are introduced by the use of adjectives and adverbs. A
protester's peaceful resistance may seem like violent obstruction to a policeman on duty.
An injured person waiting for an ambulance may think it arrived slowly when the ambulance
driver believes he drove fast.
Verbs too can be loaded with bias. The same protester who lobbed a stone at a police van
may be seen by the men inside to have hurled it at them. A boss sees his workers go
on strike, the workers may say they withdraw their labour.
Words like sack, retrench and make redundant describe similar situations in which people
lose their jobs, but they mean quite different things to the bosses and workers involved.
Some American companies even speak of letting workers go, even though the workers
themselves have no choice.
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qoutes
You are on safer ground when you use words in quotes. That way the reader
can judge the bias through the eyes of the person you quote. (In radio or
television, it is better to use a recording of people speaking the actual words,
called actuality.) In the following example, look at the difference between
these two sentences describing the same crime. Notice how the magistrate
and the accused see the crime in opposite ways:
The magistrate said: "These were mean and despicable thefts, carried out against a
defenceless family for no good reason."
The accused said: "I never robbed anyone. I just took from the rich people and gave it
back to title
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TO SUMMARISE:
You must keep your language clear and simple so that your readers or listeners can
understand.
Sentences should be short - no longer than 20 words or three concepts (ideas).
Sentence structure should be simple; it is best to write in the active voice.
Explain any new words whenever you use them.
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Summary
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Mirjam Nilsson
www.contoso.com
