Mass Communications 210
Media Writing

Better Writing: Some fast techniques to get you started

Keep it short and to the point. Write tightly. Make your writing muscular and lean.

1. Stick the golden English standard: Subject...verb...object. Avoid long, winding introductory phrases whenever possible.
   
   
2. Put the name before the verb in attribution. [Not: "Don't it this way," said Mrs. Hanson. Instead: "Do it this way," Mrs. Hanson said.]
   
   
3. Always put long titles after the person's name ... and never capitalize a title after the name. [David Ortiz was named director of metastatistical analysis and interagency research.]  Better yet, paraphrase a title as vague as that one unless precision is necessary. [David Ortiz heads the analysis and research section.]
   
   
4. Use either the day of the week or the date — never both. [This class meets next Tuesday. The first exam is scheduled Sept. 26.] Days of the week are used for those within seven days of today. Otherwise, dates are used. The current year is never used in dates.
   
   
5. Eliminate grammatical expletives — "there is" and "there are"—from your writing vocabulary unless used in a direct quote. They clutter up your sentences and violate the golden English standard. (See point #1.)
   
   
6. Avoid talking inanimate objects. [The White House says ... Dakota Heartland Health System denies ... MSUM urges] Buildings don't talk. When you specify the human who's talking, you add precision to your account. 
   
   
7. Don't repeat important words in the same sentence or paragraph.
   
   
8. Stamp out boring quotes! Use direct quotes only for colorful, flavorful remarks or statements whose credibility depends on the speaker's unique insight or credentials.
   
   
9. Use present-tense verbs for ongoing situations ... and in many other media situations. The news has a strong bias toward telling of things that are happening right now.
   
   
10. Omit "on" before a day of the week or month and date. [The council meets Thursday.] Note the use of the present-tense verb "meets" instead of future tense "will meet." This is standard media style.

Three Speedy Ways To Clean Up Your Punctuation

1. Learn to appreciate the beauty of simple declarative sentences. Use compound construction as seldom as possible, neatly sidestepping the terrors of semi-colons, conjunctions and run-on sentences. 
   
   
2. Learn the difference between contractions and possessive pronouns right now! [It's] means "it is." [Its] is a possessive pronoun, as in "its fleece was white as snow. Possessive pronouns — its, theirs, hers, his and yours — never, never, never possess apostrophes!
   
   
3. Commas and periods always go inside end quotes. Question marks and exclamation points can go in either place, depending on meaning.
   [She told the class, "This one simple tip takes you halfway toward being a professional writer." Did she say, "Everyone's ready"?]