The Hindu Business Line : Good writing is never padded

Can the print media survive the Internet age? Perhaps, yes. But `they must evolve a distinctive role involving more than the basic skills of news gathering and reporting,' says Angela Phillips in Good Writing for Journalists, from Sage (www.sagepublications.com).

"Journalists have to be good narrators in order to hold attention in a world in which information streams unceasingly through our daily lives (written, visual, sound, or all three). Their job is to carry messages not just about things that we need to know in order to get on in the world, but also about who we are and how we are changing," insists the well-written book.

The author, a journalist for over thirty years, runs the journalism course in Goldsmiths College, University of London. She devotes nearly three-fourths of her book, not to punctuation and spelling, but to many examples of `writing that are powerful, memorable, colourful or funny', because `the best way to learn about great writing is to read it'.

Phillips reminds wannabe journalists, "Our readers don't want to be talked down to from a lofty height. They want us to talk in terms they understand. They are more likely to find out about a subject if we have caught their interest rather than gabbling away high above their heads."

And to those who indefinitely wait for a story inspiration, the author assures that ideas are everywhere. Only, you need to listen and look. Here is an example from the book. "A corner shop in a very rundown inner-city area started selling fresh coffee beans. A journalist, living locally, realised that, as small shopkeepers are very sensitive to local needs, this new line could be the sign of a bigger underlying change. She researched a little further and then used her discovery as the lead into a feature on the gentrification of a then rundown working-class district in South London."

Valuable insight for reporters is that `good reporting lingers in the memory just as long as the most memorable photographs'. It is what will in the end separate the professional writers from the people who just happened to be there at the time, says Phillips. "A reporter, unlike a participant or bystander, should have the capacity to stand back and see that captured moment or detail that acts as a metaphor for an event."

Good writing is never padded, advises the author. "Each word is there to do a job. Where adjectives are used at all they have a clear purpose: they describe colour, size, number."

A section on `what to avoid in writing' begins with `overdoing', which can happen as a consequence of a redundant supply of metaphors, often mixed up. Clichés are next on the list of things to stay away from; simple rule is, `if a phrase sounds familiar, avoid it'. Rhetorical questions are another trap. "Don't ask your readers. Tell them," counsels Phillips.

Compulsory read.

"Rhetorical questions are often lazy devices for linking paragraphs that don't quite fit together. So make the paragraphs fit."

She cites Marcelle D'Argy Smith, ex-editor of British Cosmopolitan thus: "It's not the writing, it's the rewriting that matters." Therefore, "Always take time to read and re-read everything and never be afraid to cut."

Part I of the book, `thinking about writing', ends with this exhortation: "Read widely and look for really good writing — not to copy it but to recognise it."

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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