Class Blog (2/5/18) by Lucy Elliott
 |
| RNS Managing Editor Lauren Markoe |
Washington Post
headline
·
“A
Call for Bipartisanship” changed to “A ‘New American Moment”
·
republicans
and democrats have been clashing, newspapers are supposed to remain unbiased
·
the
headlines did not tell much, you needed to read the article to get an
impression of the speech
·
people
are picking their news outlets based on the type of information they want to be
exposed to, and news outlets are catering to their segregated audiences
·
if
we’re only receiving information outlets giving us what we want to hear, we’ll
never be exposed to other viewpoints
How to eliminate
wordiness
·
don’t
use meaningless modifiers such as “various”
·
avoid
passive voice, needless repetition, and wordy phrases
·
all
first-draft sentences must be evaluated for wordiness
Stephen King “On
Writing”
·
active
verb: the subject is doing something
·
passive
verb: something is being done to the subject
·
there
are circumstances where the passive voice is appropriate but in general, it is
weak
·
the
reader is always the main concern
·
adverbs:
words that modify other verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (usually ending in
–ly)
o
avoid
them, they weaken the writer’s authority
·
the
appropriate verb for attribution is “said” all other verbs imply a hidden
connotation
·
don’t
over explain
Lauren Markoe: managing editor religion news
service
·
religion
is very prevalent in political stories (Trump and evangelical advisory board,
islamophobia)
·
Markoe
did not have a religious upbringing, she learned by asking questions
·
if
you want to work in journalism, you need to grow a thick skin and listen to
criticism
·
clarity:
you need clear writing, saying what needs to be said in the minimum amount of
words possible
·
religion
can be a source for good or evil
o
conflicts
that appear religious are something else at their core, but expressed in terms
of religion
·
cover
the stories no one else is covering
o
Religion
News covers atheist news, not being covered anywhere else
·
work-life
balance, having a life outside of your career or that works with your career
·
editors
expect their reporters to come up with their own stories, know their own beats
·
while
you are writing, you are not a member of your religion, you are a journalist
·
there
used to be a religion page in the Washington Post, not treated like hard news
·
lauren.markoe@religionnews.com (send 3 clips cover and letter if
you’re interested in an internship. deadline 3 weeks to apply)
Alex Gilder adds:
We then moved on to
“wordiness,” and how to be concise, a class goal. We have issues with this due
to past assignments’ expectations or to emulate literature writers. We then
read through the sarcastic “Nine Easy Steps to Longer Sentences by Kathy
McGinty” and then did the Eliminating Words Exercise 1 from OWL. The take-away
from the exercise was that our work will not be perfect the first time, but
that revision will be required to make our writing more concise and refined. We
then reviewed a sentence from a government report on education, and reworded it
to simplify it common language, and discussed how jargon is unnecessary and
adding words in order to sound smarter is misguided, and that we should always
remember our audience when writing.
Alex Gilder adds:
In the Washington Post, there
were 2 headlines, one “A Call for Bipartisanship” and another “A “New American
Moment”” which led to over 3,000 negative comments. Class members showed how
there was too much opinion in the first headline, and how the second headline
was unreflective. In contrast, the NY Daily News was much clearer of their
opinion with the headline “What a Load of Clap … Trump Praises Himself, touts
‘Unity’ while bashing Immigs”, which shows more of how the Daily News viewed
the speech. Classmates prefer headlines that leave opinion out of it, but
studies have shown that people mainly judge their news outlets by headlines,
and news outlets are catering to specific group’s beliefs. This is an issue
because it is limiting perspectives and not giving people new opinions or full
stories. This is why we will work to keep our opinions out of our writing.
We then read an excerpt from
Stephen King’s “On Writing.” Review this and pay special attention to the
sections Professor Piacente has underlined. The main messages of this excerpt are
to avoid the “passive voice” at all costs, to avoid the use of adverbs, to use
said whenever possible for dialogue attributions, and to not let into fears in
writing to therefore write more concisely and confidently.
Homework
·
Joy
Baker story due by 5 p.m. Wednesday (Lateness will be penalized)
·
read
chapters 8 and 10; write top three takeaways per chapter
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