Is it ever okay to copy someone else’s writing style? KARE-TV reporter Boyd Huppert, one of the finest writers in the business, says it’s actually a good way to develop your own.
Developing a writing style
Category: 06. Writing the Story: Broadcast
TV writing advice
Writing is hard work, no matter what your medium. As the German novelist Thomas Mann once said, “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Journalist Gene Fowler joked, “Writing is easy. …
Story planning tips
If you’re using the textbook, you’re already aware that planning is an essential part of the storytelling process. It begins as soon as you have some idea of what your story is about. Having a story plan helps you find…
Writing opens and closes
For many TV reporters, the hardest things to write in any story are the opening and closing lines. The result is that many of the stories you see on the air are really just middles. They don’t get off to…
A fun writing tool
You know the old saying: A picture is worth a thousand words. How about a picture of a thousand words (or more)? That’s basically what you get from a “word cloud”–a visual representation of text, with the most frequently used…
The written word still matters
Yes, it’s a multimedia world. But the most important skill any journalist brings to the job is the ability to write, says Geoff Dankert, assistant news director at the Fox station in Chicago, WFLD-TV. At this week’s NLGJA conference in…
Focusing tool
Here’s yet another use for Twitter: as a tool to help focus your stories. The suggestion comes from former Washington Post editor Craig Stoltz, who says the discipline of writing substantive Tweets helps to reinforce the key journalism skill of…
Ten tips for writing TV news
People who think writing TV news is easy have probably never done it well. What’s easy (unfortunately) is finding examples of BAD news writing–“simplistic, cliché and shallow,” says Jessica Grillanda, who teaches at Cambrian College in Ontario, Canada. Getting it…
Overused and abused
Every year since 1975, Lake Superior State University has put out a list of words that should be banished for misuse, overuse or general uselessness. The school accepts nominations through its Web site and a committee selects the final list…
Find a focus and lose the jargon
KARE-TV’s Joe Fryer knows a little something about good writing. He’s won three national Edward R. Murrow awards and five regional Emmys. Joe was one of my fellow instructors at this year’s NPPF Airborne TV Seminar in Rochester, N.Y., and…