FINAL THOUGHTS:Practical, Job-Related, Social, Stimulating, Therapeutic

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Journalistic Writing MCM310

LECTURE 45

FINAL THOUGHTS

The purpose of this lecture is to review and re-stress the importance and the application of this course in the

personal, academic and professional lives of students, novice writers and of course would-be journalists.

Donald Norman from Stanford University rightly said:

"The invention of writing is probably the most important tool for human advancement, making it possible for

each new generation to build upon the work of the previous, to transmit knowledge from person to person,

across cultures and time."

Writing is

· Practical.

Job-Related.

Social.

Stimulating.

Therapeutic.

Qualities of a good writer:

"Anyone who wishes to produce a good writing should endeavor, before he allows himself to be tempted by

the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid." H. W Fowler/The King's English

Writer is

· An effective communicator.

A fact finder.

Reader, purpose and context sensitive.

Influencer of readers' behaviors.

Knows his medium.

And, good writing is

"Writing should be `terse, simple and direct' and should avoid the use of the `unusual, longwinded, stilted

and circumlocutory' phrases and words." Gowers et al.

Fowler's all time favorite words:

1. Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched.

2. Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.

3. Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.

4. Prefer the short word to the long.

5. Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.

Why to follow a writing process?

It can help writers

· To organize their thoughts.

It can help writers to avoid frustration and procrastination.

It can help writers to use their time productively and efficiently.

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The writing stages are:

Invention, Collection, Organization, Drafting, Revising, Proofreading

Words and dictionaries:

How words are formed?

· Word forms, Portmanteau words, Prefixes, Suffixes, Compounding

Important word aspects:

· Collocations, Figurative language, Connotations

Dictionaries:

Types: unabridged, abridged, learner's dictionaries

What dictionaries can tell you?

Word, meaning, pronunciation, grammar, label, polysemy, etymology, collocation, register, etc.

Parts of speech:

Picture words: noun, adjective, verb and adverb

Function words: pronoun, determiner, conjunctions, interjection

Basic grammar sense:

Basic clause patterns:

· SV, SVO, SVC, SVI, D, SVOD

Sentence types:

· simple, compound, complex and compound-complex

Sentence purpose:

declarative, imperative, interrogative and explanative

Modifiers:

Adjective, adverb, appositive and prepositional

Grammatical sentence:

· Subject-Verb Agreement

Problems with Pronouns

Adjectives and Adverbs

Sentence Fragments

Comma Splices & Fused Sentences

Effective sentence:

· Sentence length

Unity

Coherence

Emphasis

Parallelism

Style pitfalls:

· Colloquialism

Circumlocution

Ambiguity

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· Redundancy

Cliché

Euphemism

Grandiloquence

Inseparable

Slang

Verbiage

Paragraphs and essays:

Paragraphs

· Simple listing paragraphs

Order of importance paragraph

Time order paragraph

Spatial order paragraph

Essays

· Strategy and the terms of question

Response, coherence, words, grammar

High impact language

· High impact words, sentences, appearance

Signal words

Writing styles:

· Report, Descriptive and Narrative writing

Art of persuasion:

· Ethos (ethics), pathos (emotion), logos (logic)

Rhetorical device: parallelism, triads, antithesis, and rhetorical questions

Research writing:

APA and MLA

· Reference Page

Parenthetical Citations

Reading skills

Punctuation and Mechanics

Journalistic language analysis: what to se in a newspaper language

1. Register

2. Lexis

3. Grammar

4. Metaphorical language

5. Sources

6. Typographical features

Newspaper related writing:

· Inverted pyramid: news writing structure

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· Editorials: opinion of the newspaper

Columns: opinion of the columnist

Features: a research and investigative or a detailed reporting

Articles: analytical essays

Letters to editors: opinion of the public

Press release: sending new to newspaper

Reviews: critical analysis or commentary of a text, object, place, or event

Obituary: death news

Interviews: to seek information from resource persons

As Jon Franklin, reporter, author and teacher, said:

"A reporter does have to be intelligent, but the big thing is courage. Courage to open your mind and

let the whole damned confusing world in Courage to always be the ignorant one, on somebody else's

turf. Courage to stand corrected. Courage to take criticism Courage to grow with your experiences

Courage to accept what you don't understand Most of all, courage to see what is there and not what

you want to think is there."

Lauren Kessler/Duncan McDonald/Mastering the Message said:

"Our society of the globe depends on clear, concise and honest communication; unless you master

language skills, information gathering, organization and style, your wok will fall short of what this

society needs."

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