Language of news
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The document discusses effective writing techniques for news articles, emphasizing the importance of clarity and conciseness. It advises writers to limit sentence length to a maximum of 20 words and to break down complex ideas into simpler sentences for better understanding. The text also provides examples demonstrating how well-structured sentences facilitate comprehension.
Language of news
- 1. Dr. Harinath Kumar Bharati College, University of Delhi
- 2. 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. Short, sharp, clear sentences
- 3. 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: Sentence length
- 4. 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 New Delhi airport this week. Story B Eight people died when an aircraft crashed near New Delhi 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. Version of a story
- 5. 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. The reason is simple. Story A contains six separate ideas for the reader or listener to understand at one time: the people in the plane; the people in the car; the type of plane; the cause of the crash; the location of the crash; the time of the crash.
- 6. Story B, by comparison, has fewer ideas in each sentence. The first sentence has just four simple ideas: the total number of dead; a simple description of the type of plane; where it crashed; when it crashed. The second sentence tells us: how many died in the plane; the exact type of plane; the exact cause of the crash.
- 7. The third sentence tells us: how the people in the car died; where the car was; how many died in the car. You may argue that Story B, as well as being longer, gives a total of ten ideas to understand. However, many of those ideas are not separate. They relate to details in the preceding sentence. Linking ideas and repeating details often helps understanding. More important, those ten ideas are not thrown at our audience in one breath. The full stop at the end of each sentence (which comes as a pause on radio and television) allows the reader or listener time to digest one set of facts before moving on to new details. We recommend that you try to limit each sentence to no more than three separate ideas. You can occasionally use four ideas per sentence, as long as those ideas are not complicated. We fitted four ideas into the intro of Story B above because two of the ideas - the time and place - are very simple and easy for the reader to understand.
- 8. AVOIDING GRAMMATICAL AND VOCABULARY ERRORS Rewrite the following sentences, correcting their wording. Rapists usually attack women that are vulnerable and alone. The school board asked their attorney to help all the students that lost money. Speaking for the highway patrol, Lucas said they would like larger and faster cars. There is not much a student can do to prevent cheating except cover their exam papers. The five men and three ladies that serve on the board predicted that the amount of people seeking help at the clinic will grow to around 500 a month. Avoiding Common Errors
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