The Associated Press Guide to News Writing Chapter 1 Review

There’s a lot of things that go into journalism. The third edition of the Associated Press Guide to News Writing by Rene J. Cappon serves as a guide to journalists. The purpose of the guidebook is to teach the reader to write like pros at leading news services. We will be looking at each chapter each week to review and critique Cappon’s book.

This week we will be starting with chapter 1 of the book: Language: Pompous, Pedantic and Plain. The chapter starts off as an introductory chapter of sorts. It tells you what Cappon has planned inside the guide and what the reader can expect to learn from Cappon.

In the chapter Cappon addresses the importance of sentence structure and how it is important for the reporter to have a transparent message in their writing. The reason behind this, is so the common reader can understand what is being reported in a straightforward and effective way. The overarching message that Cappon wants to convey in his book is that all news writing should aim for simplicity and directness.


Overall the first chapter of the Associated Press Guide to News Writing is a little lackluster, but it serves it purposes. The purpose of the chapter is to be a short introduction into what Cappon has planned in his 13-chapter guidebook to journalism and he succeeds in that purpose.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Associated Press Guide to News Writing Chapter 10 Review

There is a lot of clichés in writing and it is no different in journalism. Writers try to hard to be clever with their words at times that they become strained and irrelevant to the topic. In Rene J. Cappon’s Associated Press Guide to News Writing chapter 10: Pseudo-Color: Clichés and Other Trespasses – Cappon writes what clichés in writing are and how to avoid them. This week we will be looking at the tenth chapter in Cappon’s book. In this chapter, Cappon ties in his last chapter about color, but this time talking about the pseudo-color of clichés and other things that could ruin a writer’s work. At the start of the chapter, Cappon makes it apparent what clichés are and how to avoid them. Cappon explains not all clichés are obnoxious, but there are some that should be used by any self-respecting writer. Using cliché phrases can bog down a story by either making the reader’s eyes roll or by using an overused cliché that is unnecessary to the story. Cappon harkens back to the ide
Read more

The Associated Press Guide to News Writing Chapter 8 Review

As a reporter getting quotes from your interviews is imperative. In the eighth chapter of Rene J. Cappon’s the Associated Press Guide to News Writing: Quotes: Your Words or Mine? he goes over the importance of quotes and how to properly write them. This week we look over this chapter and review it. Quotes are indispensable to reporters and Cappon makes sure you know that. When writing out quotes it is important to attribute quotes to the source that said and to enclose the captions around it. In this chapter Cappon explains a lot of basics of quotes like when to quote, how to use them and where to place them. Cappon expresses that the importance of placing said properly and effectively.   In a way to avoid fragmented quotes, Cappon explains the importance of paraphrase and how it can save choppy quotes. This chapter had more examples than explanations. Cappon goes on and on too much about the basics of quoting which hurts the flow of this chapter. This chapter becomes deriv
Read more

The Associated Press Guide to News Writing Chapter 12 & 13 Review

This week we will be finishing the last two chapters of Rene J. Cappon’s The Associated Press Guide to News Writing . We will be looking at chapter 12: Usage: Handling Those Hectoring Hangups and chapter 13: Bestiary: A Compendium for the Careful and the Crotchety. In chapter 12, Cappon talks about sentence structure. In the chapter, Cappon talks about when to place certain words in sentences like but and and . Cappon explains that these words have different context in a sentence depending on the topic of the sentence. Cappon also explains when to use dashes and commas. Cappon goes through other types of words in sentences and how to use them properly like et cetera, the proper use of lay vs lie , handling numbers and using the word that. In chapter 13, Cappon makes a short dictionary of words to help the reader understand how to use these words and place them in sentences. Cappon also goes into the meaning of these words to help the reader further understand when to use them
Read more