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Hit List of Words to Avoid

Hit List of Words to Avoid. Hit List: Words and Phrases to Avoid in News Writing.  1st person (I, we, our, etc.)  2nd person (you, your, etc.)  get, got, getting, gotten, etc. have, has, had, having (unless used as helping verbs)

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Hit List of Words to Avoid

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  1. Hit List of Words to Avoid

  2. Hit List: Words and Phrases to Avoid in News Writing •  1st person (I, we, our, etc.) •  2nd person (you, your, etc.) •  get, got, getting, gotten, etc. • have, has, had, having (unless used as helping verbs) •  do, did, done, does, doing (unless used as helping verbs)

  3. Hit List Cont. •  go, goes, going, gone, went •  am, is, are, was, were, be being been (unless sparingly used for description) • There is/are/was/were/will be •  a lot, lots •  thing • stuff

  4. And More • good bad • veryreally • kind ofsort of • little (as in little bit) •  big/huge (unless used for size but not when you mean major, important, etc.) • pretty (as in pretty hungry)

  5. Make Writing Strong • Use action verbs for 90 – 95% of your article/column. • Active voice is strong. Passive voice is weak and only the best choice when used as description or when the true subject (who/what did the action) is unknown. •  See your Proofreading/Editing Key for help with passive voice.

  6. Make Writing Strong • Choose words best suited to your topic, activity, method, etc. • Put them in context and define them if your audience will need explanations. • Use Word Menu.

  7. Make Writing Concise Avoid clutter: Use a thesaurus to find a more concise word. Often one word can replace phrases

  8. Examples: • at this point in time = now • in a great many instances, in several instances, on many/several occasions, etc. = often, frequently • has (have) the ability to sing = can sing • is (are) able to = can

  9. Examples cont. • is (are) going to = will • have to = must • need to = must • started to = began • (But only if pointing out that an event actually began. • Otherwise just tell what the subject did. Did they start to swim or did they swim?)

  10. Examples: • for the reason that, due to the fact that = because • the fact that = REPHRASE • Limit prepositions: Usually you can convert preps into adjs or advs, but determine if you really need the expression in the first place. Rephrase!

  11. The Last PowerPointFor Now Now, Go out there and Report the News!

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