This practical handbook is the ideal writing style guide for all reporters, writers, editors, and English and journalism students. It covers all the essentials of good news writing, according to the styles and guidelines set forth by the Associated Press -- with lively examples from today's newspapers. This authoritative guide includes:
Professional advice about crafting a good feature story
In-depth reviews of important principles in news writing
Expert guidance on writing concise, informative copy, source citations, and more.
Clear and instructive discussions of specialized styles.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
A Great and Essential Read for New Writers:
I love this book! As a working journalist for some national newspapers the sentiment here reminded me of what my editors told me when I started out. I also work as a writing professor and started using this as mandatory reading for my newspaper and magazine writing class. The basic premise of the book is to write tightly, clearly and to rid one's work of irritating nonsense and twaddle. It's the only way to get published so the advice is best followed. The examples of news writing that the author offers are... more info
excellent refresher--but have your dictionary handy:
A superb refresher for veteran journalists--and light-hearted. Cappon is as much a humorist as an editor and instructor. Besides its wealth of ideas and corrections, the guide is a fun read. But be within arm's reach of your dictionary as you proceed. Cappon assumes such terms as "rococo," "fatuous," "tautology" and "pedagogue" are in your casual vocabulary. And of course you know what "bowwow language" is. (Are you certain?) Daniel Elton Harmon
www.danieleltonharmon.com
Excellent resource:
This is one of the few writing books that I return to again and again. It emphasizes creating clean, concise, active and engaging copy. It's filled with examples of what not to do from news stories (with corrected versions, too) and is thin enough to read in just a few hours. Any journalist will find this book a powerful tool to help improve their own news writing.
Needs a Re-write!:
I couldn't believe my eyes! Wouldn't you expect this writing guide to be grammatically correct, at the very least? It isn't. Something else it isn't is quickly accessible. You have to read through the sarcasm, and then see a "corrected" version of a poorly written example. Unfortunately, that version needs work, too. Usually, I keep every book I buy, or give them to friends or charities, but this one went into the trash. Yikes!
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