Journalistic writing: building the skills, honing the craft

Why and how good writing counts : The deadline dilemma ; Getting the subject from one mind to another ; The jargon trap ; The blessings of a well-crafted lede for the reporter and reader ; The time-saving, on-deadline formula ; The style trap ; Some basic guidelines for developing writing skills ; A word about the English language ; Bigger does not always mean better ; The beauty, and bane, of a big vocabulary

Is it newsworthy? : The lede, the story, the medium ; Audience and audiences ; The prime criteria of newsworthiness ; Human interest: the grab-bag criterion ; Newsworthiness for the eye and ear ; Designer newsworthiness: creating "news" for ratings and profit ; Taking the electronic hits ; But does it matter?

Leading the reader on : The lede: the critical element ; Avoiding dull or generic ledes ; Leading with a question ; Leading with a direct quote ; Ensuring the lede makes sense ; The "nut-graf" approach ; Getting to the point ; Avoiding lede intimidation

Building the story : How not to conduct an interview ; Bringing the story together ; One reporter's example ; When to stop describing ; Developing the breaking story ; Developing an issue by using specifics ; The feature: writing about how and why ; Writing for magazines: a category in search of a definition ; The magazine feature

The craft : The rewards of murky writing ; Separating the craft from the profession ; Avoiding wordiness ; Caution: concise writing doesn't always enhance clarity ; Eliminating redundancy ; Compounding the sentence with complexity ; Correctly using "that and "which" (and "who" and "whom") ; Writing with precision ; Using parallel structures: making your numbers agree ; Sexist language versus good English ; An American dilemma? ; Your antecedents are showing: dangling participles and misplaced modifiers ; Writing directly, without apology: avoiding tiptoe (or weasel words) ; Replenishing the word supply

Active voice, action verbs : The relationship of active voice and action verbs ; Active voice and honesty ; Active voice, clarity and crispness ; Action verbs and imagery ; Being (or linking) verbs ; Creativity killers?

An appearance of honesty : Journalistic ethics: an oxymoron? ; A passion for accuracy ; Avoiding generalizations, assumptions, pomposity and overblown statements ; Euphemisms: when tact and truth don't agree ; Fudge marks: how not to embellish your prose ; Of opinion and ethics: the elusiveness of truth ; Don't editorialize unless you are writing a column or editorial ; Respect the reader ; Make sure the reader knows what you're writing about ; Quotations and attributions: taking the onus off the reporter ; Is the reporter making this up? ; The power of the direct quote ; Keep the reporter out of the story

The eternal cliché : Word exhaustion and the death of originality ; Avoid the empty and the trite ; The making of a cliché ; Clichés to avoid ; Apprentice clichés and slang ; Juggling jargon: the mark of a lazy writer ; Business jargon ; Cop and criminal lawyer lingo ; Journalese ; The comic value of clichés

Red flags and no-nos : THe need to exist versus the need for surgical removal ; The big red flag: "that" ; Special red flags: "there is" and similar usages ; Another special red flag: "feel" ; Red flag tenses: perfect doesn't always mean good ; No-nos: only use them in direct quotation ; Special no-nos: "currently" and "presently" ; Rules to write by

Broadcast style : Medium versus message ; Comparing the media ; Writing for broadcast: how to cater to the ear and eye ; Some broadcast style pointers ; The anchor and the reporter ; Variations for the visual media ; An alphabetical digest of broadcast writing rules

Appendix A. Various points of style

Appendix B. The beautiful mongrel : Learning the history of English: the point ; English language: Celtic expression ; A question of pedigree, or lack thereof ; Geoffrey, WIll and the boys ; Dr. Johnson and the beginnings of modern English ; English, the equal opportunity borrower.