Skill of Writing

Writing for mass media and

Journalism

M.VijayalakshmiAssistant Professor

B4 EL CS –COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Unit – 5 : Skill of Writing

5.1 Writing as a complex skill - Difference between Oral and Written communication.

5.2 Components of Effective written communication.

5.3 Role of language - style, content and presentation, effective use of vocabulary.

5.4 Writing for mass media and Journalism.5.5 Evaluation of writing skill - Assessment

Techniques - Teacher's Role in the development of writing skill.

5.4 Writing for mass media and Journalism.

Writing for the Mass Media

What is Good Writing?

• Clear, concise, simple, and to the point

– Efficient - minimum words to make your point

– Precise - every word has a meaning

– Clear - leaves no doubt in reader’s mind

– Modest - don’t show off your intelligence

Know the Tools of the Trade

• Grammar

• Spelling

• Punctuation

• Dictionary

• Thesaurus

Know Your Subject

• Don’t have to be an expert

• But have a clear idea

• Your readers must understand your content

• Don’t know subject - research!– Search engines

– Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

– Book stores

Write It Down

• Just start writing (edit later)

• Develop writing habits

• Be a pro - meet your deadlines

• Edit and Rewrite– Discipline

– Re-read

– Edit

– Rewrite (critically)

Write Simply

• Use simple words - key to clarity

– “many” instead of “numerous”

– “use” instead of “utilize”

– “ease” instead of “facilitate”

Use simple sentences

Brevity (edit to cut out unnecessary words)

Chief Goal of a Writer

• The chief goal of any writer for the mass media is to be accurate.

– The reason for an emphasis on accuracy is that people will not watch or subscribe to news that they believe to be inaccurate.

Clarity

• Clarity must be one of the chief goals of a writer for the mass media.

– Facts that are unclearly presented are of little use to the reader. Some tips:• Keep it simple

• Avoid jargon

• Be specifc (who, what, when, where, why, and how)

• Check time sequences (ensure narrative sequence)

• Include transitions (story should flow logically)

Eliminate Jargon, Cliches, etc.

• Jargon - industry technical language

• Cliches - overused words and phrases

• Bureaucratese - misuse of language

• Vary sentence length

• Pay attention to nouns and verbs

• Transitions tie it together

Obscure Grammar Terms

• Parallelism– She likes running, cooking, and swimming.

• Active/Passive Voice– John throws the ball

– The ball is thrown by John.

• That and Which– That introduces essential clauses. Which

introduces non-essential clauses.

Writing for Mass Media

• Subject matter

– News, features, ads, letters, editorials

• Purpose

– Inform, entertain, persuade

• Audience

– Know your target audience (defines message)

Journalist Conventions

• Inverted pyramid

• Types of stories

• Balance and fairness

• Impersonal reporter

• Reliance on official sources

• Attributions and quotations

Text and Images

• Stories built around graphics– Photos, logos, graphs, charts

– TV, maps, web

• Editors love graphics– Graphics attract the reader’s eye

– Breaks up the text (less intimidating to read)

AP Style: Capitalization

• Capitalize holidays, historic events, church feast days, and special events -- but not seasons

• Capitalize proper names of nationalities, peoples, races, and tribes

• Capitalize and place quotations around books, plays, poems, songs, speech titles, hymns, movies, TV shows, etc. when the full name is used

AP Style: Numbers

• Spell out both numbers one through nine and Arabic numerals for 10 and above

• Use commas in numbers with four or more digits except for years and addresses

• Numbers greater than a million may be rounded off and expressed:– 2.75 million instead of 2,752,123

– $2.35 million instead of $2,349,999

AP Style: Punctuation

• Colon used in clock time– 9:15 a.m., 10 a.m. (not 10:00 a.m.)

• Hyphen used in phrasal adjectives– 7-year-old boy, a little-known man

• Combinations of a number plus a noun measurement– 3-inch bug, 6-foot man, two-man team

• Hyphen always used with the prefix “ex”– Ex-president, ex-chairman

• Hyphen not used with adverb ending in “ly”

• Comma omitted before Roman numerals and before Jr. and Sr. in names

AP Style: Names & Titles

• Identify people in the news with first and last name

• Use full name in first reference, last name rest of time– Richard Cooper, then use Cooper rest of time

• Titles before names - capitalized– Chairman and CEO, Bob Stanwick

• Titles following names - not capitalized– Linda Bellweather, president of ABC Company

Finally…

• Writing is a process

– Research, create, write, edit, proofread

• Writing requires discipline

– Be patient and stick with it

• Writing is building

– Word by word, sentence by sentence, etc.

• Finally … sit down and write

MASS MEDIA IN

EDUCATION-JOURNALS

Mass media• The mass media are diversified media technologies that are

intended to reach a large audience via mass communication.

• Broadcast media transmit information electronically, via such

media as film, radio, recorded music, or television.

• Digital media comprises both Internet and mobile mass

communication.

• Internet media comprise such services as email, social media

sites, websites, and Internet-based radio and television.

• Many other mass media outlets have an additional presence on the

web, by such means as linking to or running TV ads online, or

distributing QR Codes in outdoor or print media to direct mobile

users to a website.

JournalsA journal (through French from Latin diurnalis, daily) has several

related meanings:

• a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually

referred to as a diary.

• a newspaper or other periodical, in the literal sense of one

published each day

• many publications issued at stated intervals, such as academic

journals and scientific journals, or the record of the transactions of

a society, are often called journals.

• In academic use, a journal refers to a serious, scholarly publication

that is peer-reviewed.

• A non-scholarly magazine written for an educated audience about

an industry or an area of professional activity is usually called a

trade magazine.

Journals in the classroom

• Journal writing is an incredibly flexible instructional tool,

useful across the entire curriculum.

• While often used as a class startup activity, it is used

primarily to give students an opportunity to speculate on

paper, confident that their ideas, observations, emotions, and

writing will be accepted without criticism.

The potential benefits of journal writing are many, including

opportunities to:

•Sort out experiences, solve problems and consider varying perspectives.

•Examine relationships with others and the world.

•Reflect on personal values, goals, and ideals.

•Summarize ideas, experience and opinions before and after instruction.

•Witness his academic and personal growth by reading past entries.

Benefits of Journals:

By reading journal entries, teachers get to

know students,

•Anxieties

•Problems

•Excitements

•Joys

and with this information, make plans tailored for their students.

Negative Aspects of Journals

Use of journals does have two possible negatives however: These include:

•The potential for the teacher to hurt students' feelings with criticism.

Remedy: Avoiding the hurt feelings is simple--just don't criticize.

•The loss of instructional time needed to teach course material.

Remedy: Instructional time can be conserved by simply limiting journal writing to five or ten minutes a period.

A more interesting approach to conserving time, however, is to assign journal topics relating to the instructional topic of the day.

Advantages of Journals

1. Each transaction is recorded as soon as it takes place. So there is

no possibility of any transaction being omitted from the books of

account.

2. Since the transactions are kept recorded in journal,

chronologically with narration, it can be easily ascertained when and

why a transaction has taken place.

3.For each and every transaction which of the two concerned

accounts will be debited and which account credited, are clearly

written in journal. So, there is no possibility of committing any

mistake in writing the ledger.

4. Since all the debits of transaction are recorded in journal, it is not

necessary to repeat them in ledger.

5. Journal shows the complete story of a transaction in one entry.

6. Any mistake in ledger can be easily detected with the help of

journal.

•Transactions recorded date-wise with explanation:

All business pecuniary transactions are entered in journal in chronological order i.e. order of occurrence.

•Process of classification at convenience:

Since transactions are recorded in journal as and when these take place it ensures that nothing shall be omitted which should be recorded.

What are the Advantages of maintaining Journals?

•Ensures the double entry rules have been followed:

Each transaction before it is recorded in journal is analyzed for the aspects involved; accounts to be debited and credited and also the debit and credit amount. Totaling of amount columns on each page ensures that the basic rule of “debit having equal and corresponding credit” has been followed.

•Reliable evidence:

As the transactions taking place and recording is at the same time therefore chances of cooking or manipulating the facts are minimized. Thought out alternations or insertions are not possible.

Sources are taken from

• Slidesharenet.com

•Web sources