Tag Archives: writing
Mark Twain on what it’s like to be interviewed
From a PBS blog post, via givemesomethingtoread.com, which pulls out great stuff bookmarked for later reading on Instapaper (and which I came across in a Twitter link from @stkonrath), comes a lovely piece Mark Twain wrote (and probably didn’t finish) about what it’s like to be interviewed. “Concerning the ‘Interview.’” No one likes to be [...]
What journalists need to know about SEO
This is a useful read for any journalist coming to terms with writing for the web and why that means understanding keywords and search engine optimisation. It was written by Shane Richmond, Communities Editor for telegraph.co.uk, for the British Journalism Review. The “Gotcha” headline on a Sun front-page splash about the sinking of the General Belgrano is one of the most famous, or infamous depending on your taste, in the history of British journalism. Yet no web producer with any experience would consider a headline like that today.
Posted in Journalism, Tools for Journalists Also tagged Journalism, keywords, optimise, search, seo, Shane Richmond, Telegraph Leave a comment
Timewise, I’m motivated to embus
(and other frowned-upon words)
Every now and then newsrooms receive edicts banning overused phrases and ungainly words. The use of access and impact as verbs springs to mind - something we were on constant guard against on the Business pages of the Daily Telegraph when I was there a few years ago. Apparently, this is nothing new. The NZ Herald in its 1966 Manual of Journalism exhorted its writers thus: "In recent years, without making them pass any sort of entrance examination, we seem to have admitted dozens of words which usually have little excuse for appearing in a newspaper. Some examples: 'Few air services operated yesterday because of fog.' Why not: 'Fog stopped most air services yesterday.'
When to beg the question, and when not to
Phrases and terms have a way of getting mangled over time and it can be hard finding clear examples of what is and isn't right. Philip Corbett, a deputy news editor at the New York Times who's in charge of its style manual, does a fine job explaining how to use 'beg the question'.
NZ Journalism Jobs & Work Wanted (March 7 2011)