News Writing

[GMicek]

Can someone point me to some good resources on news writing? I enjoy doing it on my website (DIY Games, and before that RPM Games) but realize that I'm not that great at it. Although I need serious work on my grammar and vocabulary I also need help on the do's and don't of news writing. I have the AP's book on news writing, and I've checked out newswriting.com (it's for TV & radio though) but figure there must be more out there. Actually going to school is an obvious answer, but I figured that some of you could also give some advise.

Any tips are greatly appreciate, thanks in advance!

[GMicek]

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Met_K]

What type of news writing do you want to do, though? Strict news writing, editorials, etc. Each has their own set of rules and guidelines, and rather wasting time on finding all the right books, take a weekend or night course at the local junior/community college on journalism.

It won't be the definitive answer, but it'll give you a good basic outline of what's what. Nowadays, though, the lines between the types are so skewed it's not even funny. Half the newspapers in the country have 'editorials' on the front page where they should have a major news event that's actually reporting something. Too many times I'll pick up a paper and see a column of text that's so far out in left field it should be thrown into Time. A good piece of news should be just that: news. No opinion, no tilt, just the plain, cold, hard facts.

In the gaming industry, that kind of writing is nonexistance. Everyone has a tilt, everyone has a spin, and everyone has an agenda. So get a book on editorial writing, if that's what you want to do. If you actually care to learn real news writing, take a course.

[Bub, Andrew]

Well, I learned from Journalism classes (nothing teaches you about unnecessary words like a little guy with a red pen who sounds like J. Jonah Jameson) but I've heard also good things about this book. Strunk & White is essential as well.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0028621905/ref=pd_gw_qpt_c_2/104-4563478-5897511?v=glance

[Miramon]

Strunk & White is indeed very good. There are plenty of other manuals of style and usage including the NY Times book of style, Chicago book of style, etc. I haven't looked at it for a while, but you might also consider the latest edition of The King's English, which is of course British, but still has useful stuff in it even if you are American, and at least will enable you to affect a British writing style :)

I have mixed feelings about the evil Microsoft grammar checker. It unfortunately mixes always-valid grammar rules with often-invalid style rules. On the one hand, if you are surprised by some of its bad-grammar discoveries, it would pay for you to use it, but on the other hand if you become anal about eliminating all the wiggly green lines you will often be eliminating perfectly good prose and replacing it with inferior writing.

[Supertanker]

Well, I learned from Journalism classes (nothing teaches you about unnecessary words like a little guy with a red pen who sounds like J. Jonah Jameson)

I believe that journalistic writing is something you must learn by doing. Take classes, work for the school paper, learn to edit. I worked at my college paper for a couple of years, and it was clear that the basics must be hammered into even the most gifted people. Who, what, why, where, when, how. The "inverted pyramid" of factual importance to make cutting the end of your story work.

Working at the paper also let me meet my doppelganger. He was the editor, and we looked so much alike that people would come up to me and start talking to me thinking I was him. Even at arm's length people couldn't easily tell us apart. It was kind of creepy.

[TimElhajj]

I have mixed feelings about the evil Microsoft grammar checker. It unfortunately mixes always-valid grammar rules with often-invalid style rules. On the one hand, if you are surprised by some of its bad-grammar discoveries, it would pay for you to use it, but on the other hand if you become anal about eliminating all the wiggly green lines you will often be eliminating perfectly good prose and replacing it with inferior writing.

You know you can set that thing so it only checks some rules and ignores others.

[TimElhajj]

duplicate post

[Miramon]

> You know you can set that thing so it only checks some rules and ignores others.

>You know you can set that thing so it only checks some rules and ignores others.

~~~~ -> "Remove redundant sentences from your writing." :P

[Brandon Clements]

> You know you can set that thing so it only checks some rules and ignores others.

>You know you can set that thing so it only checks some rules and ignores others.

~~~~ -> "Remove redundant sentences from your writing." :P
Somehow, that was so fitting for a thread about grammer :lol:

[Kyle Wilson]

Somehow, that was so fitting for a thread about grammer :lol:

Grammar. :)

[Miramon]

> Grammar.
~~~~~~~~
"Sentence has no verb or subject?"

OK, OK, I'm going, I'm going.... I'm already gone.... have a good weekend :)

[GMicek]

Thanks for the tips all. I'm mainly looking for help on hard news writing, and not so much on editorial writing. I'm going to check out some of the books that were suggested, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks again!

[TimElhajj]

"Remove redundant sentences from your writing."

It's hard to have a problem with redundant sentences when you only write a single sentence.