When journalists abuse the English language and fail to use it
efficiently, the profession loses its luster. It happens quite frequently. The
durability of the error committed remains longer than one can imagine. The
entire perspective changes when an error is introduced on purpose. The recent
developments in the profession of Journalism,
thanks to the technological boom, has made the ‘commit an error’ a default approach.
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The spread
of digital media and its
acceptance as the primary source of news has ensured that mistakes are
always fresh and grand. Anything can be shared and published. On the top of it,
syntax of the sentences created to convey the news is not primal. It is like
curating contents from here and there and finally clubbing it together.
Nowadays, selection of words ushers a joy ride to the world of sensationalism.
The
reporters should understand the elements of the sentences that is most
important and that deserves an emphasis or a special significance: who, what,
when, where, why or how. A strong ground in grammar and a feel for clarity, simplicity and brevity is highly
required. For
example, young people use a lot of abbreviations and perceive nothing wrong in
saying `I repeat again...’ which is usually used often by TV anchors to
prevent a bad connection while conducting a telephonic conversation. Similarly,
`all the way’ is used
by the cricket commentators to
describe a batsman hitting the ball to the boundary. There are words such as ‘OMG’, ‘LOL’, and ‘ROFL’ which
have become the trend among the modern conversation. Unfortunately, the journalists are quite comfortable using
these words in their reports. Though the current situation considers these kind
of articles something in regard to a breath in the fresh air; the English language is losing its value.
They see nothing wrong in cross batting a language into oblivion. The young journalists working in Print and Television are inflicting this despicable habit upon people. The
worst part is the seniors do nothing about it. They often resist correction. No
wonder bad English has become the
style and the norm.
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Journalists
and Editors are the kind of people
who despite being careful are prone to a wide range of errors. Sometimes
mistakes are deleted and the corrections are made within a fraction of time.
Such forms of content update activity not only raise questions about
journalistic integrity but also
challenge the very notion of accountability.
Editing, like writing, takes time to master. But at the end of the day, outcomes
are satisfactory. One can easily pen contents in a more professional,
marketable, and persuasive way. There are certain steps to introspect while
editing a news article or its
contents.
1.Kill the unnecessary.
Sentences should be small. There is no point
writing long sentences which is hard to comprehend. A Good writer understands
the point of emphasis and ways to connect with the readers.
The sentences should be precise and must
convey the idea effectively. Chalking out the unnecessary part helps in
improving the overall narrative.
2. Short paragraphs, better ideas
A short and snappy paragraph ingrained with a single idea is easily to follow. The
dramatic effect is maintained when one keeps it in small sentences and
maintains a standard paragraph
length. One can tend to fix, at least four to six sentences in a paragraph.
Basically, shorter paragraphs are easier to comprehend for the common person. This is
quite important when one writes for the Web.
A mere break in the paragraphs makes
it more acceptable to the reader.
3. Problems related to –ing, tion
Taking good, dynamic verbs
and often turning them into nouns,
by adding the suffixes -tion or –ing, are generally non advisable. Nouns ending in -ing
are acceptable. But constructions like “I am eating” or “The new team will be managing” are rather weak constructions;
we can rewrite them to read “I eat” and “the team will manage.” Most
importantly the tenses have
to be correct overall, which gives a frame to the article.
4. Unnecessary words should be eliminated.
It’s always advisable to select short words than long complex words.
People face a lot of difficulties when they edit their own article. They keep
adding more words to make the article look solid and then try hard to get rid
of those by editing it themselves; somewhere in the process, the article loses
its life.
Examples:
The entire
nation
I knew that She did it
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5. Passive
voice should be used when necessary
Active voice is mostly preferred. But, one
can use passive voice if it is the
best way to make a point. Verb is an important part of speech, thus passive voice has to be avoided, if ‘action’ is important. Passive voice blurs
the idea of the writing; People and their action remain obscure.
6. Spelling
and grammar check
Before we finish editing we must check for
mistakes and fix errors and fix them at the earliest. Many mistakes in the grammar, the punctuation
style and spellings can be
embarrassing.
P.G. Student
Department of English
