Style Matters #42: Why writers and editors find ‘the the’ hides in plain sight
I’d be a rich copy editor if I had $1 for every time I’ve seen – or, more importantly, removed – a too-common double-up in news and feature stories. A […]
Tag Archives: writing
Style Matters #41: Double-check these words to prevent embarrassment
Although people regularly make fun of the Australian vernacular and snigger at the likes of Kath and Kim, beginner reporters, broadcasters and writers everywhere need to catch themselves before they […]
Style Matters #40: Don’t overstate a point when introducing a speaker
Following on from yesterday’s mega-posting on getting attribution right, there is one bad habit creeping into reported speech that we should expunge from published news stories. It is particularly noticeable […]
Style Matters #39: Attribution is an art form all writers should master
Whether you work in a busy newsroom, a home office or for a magazine or book publisher, how you handle quoted speech is a clear marker of your professionalism. I […]
Style Matters #38: It really should be easy to ‘practise’ putting ‘practice’ into action
Here’s a quick tip for a Monday morning. There’s a simple way to remember whether to use practice or practise in a sentence. As n (for the noun) comes before […]
Style Matters #37: A bit of variety helps ensure things don’t get too ‘foggy’
How do writers know when their copy is pitched at the right level for their target audience to comprehend? Is the copy so “dense” that its readers will struggle to […]
Style Matters #36: When a speaker doesn’t quite say it how you need to quote it
Substituting spoken words with more precise words in parentheses when quoting a speaker is an art form that some news writers seem to have all mixed up. The dilemma usually […]
Style Matters #35: It’s time to kick those clichés to the kerb
Curbing the tendency to pollute your writing with clichés is important for a professional reporter or writer. Australian television news, at present, seems to be having an inexplicably lazy preoccupation […]
Style Matters #34: Use all your senses to check your writing
Carrying on from a suggestion in yesterday’s Style Matters posting on missing punctuation, let’s look a bit closer at how writers can pick up more mistakes before their work is […]
Style Matters #33: When one tiny missing mark confuses everything
In the rush to file stories or wrap up a manuscript, reporters and writers often overlook the simplest things, such as missing punctuation marks, which can alter intended meaning in […]
reporting4work 