ADV 225 Lecture 8: ADV 225: Lecture 8 - Google Docs
ADV 225: Lecture 8
●The news voice
○Target audience= journalists
■Think like a journalist
■Write like a journalist
○Four characteristics of media writing
■Accuracy
■Clarity
■Brevity
■Precision
○Journalists report news
○Elements
■Balance
■Fairness
■Impersonal
○Journalists are invisible to their audience
■Do not include their own opinion or views
■Do not state opinionated material directly
○Avoid speaking for people who are subjects of the story
■Let them speak for themselves
■Use said or according to
○Avoid direct contact with reader
■Avoid first-person pronouns, second person pronouns
○Be impersonal
○Avoid unique, creative voice
○Do not insert yourself into the piece
■Report facts
■Report what people say
●Web writing
○Characteristics
■Interactive
■General concepts for effective writing
■Greater premium on clarity, coherence and accuracy
■Audience can give instant feedback
■Be respectful, polite and factual
■Relies on links
■Integrate words, pictures, graphics and audio/video
○Elements of blogs
■Summary of key points
●Web writing uses an inverted pyramid style
○First paragraph provides key information so can quickly
get the idea of the article
●Sections with subheads
Document Summary
Do not include their own opinion or views. Avoid speaking for people who are subjects of the story. Do not insert yourself into the piece. Greater premium on clarity, coherence and accuracy. Web writing uses an inverted pyramid style. First paragraph provides key information so can quickly get the idea of the article. People dont read" online- they scan an article. Break the article into several logical sections, each section should have an informational subheads. Keep the length of each paragraph to 3 or 4 lines of text. A list works better in presenting parallel items. Organize your text into two or more sections; try to keep a consistent length for each section. Work on a subhead; each subhead should be informational in telling what that section talks about,and the several subheads as a group should be able to tell what the whole article is about.
