Newswriters: Avoid these (and all other) cliches this year
John P. Wise
Director of Digital Media at WSYX-TV, passionate about coaching young people and helping them grow their careers
If you write news for a living, please stop using these expressions in the new year:
+ Went missing
+ Holding out hope
+ Searching for answers
+ Adult female
+ At this time
+ Officially
+ Gone to the dogs
+ Dog days of summer
+ Hailed a hero
+ Lost his life
+ Non-life-threatening injuries
+ Sending shockwaves
+ At the scene
There are dozens of other examples, and I'm sure my writer friends will add some in the comments below. Every newsroom I've worked in, we've sat around on slow days and laughed about the yawny cliches that often appear in news writing. Then we get back to work, and before I go home for the day, one of them appears in a broadcast script or a web story.
One thing I tell young writers is to flip their thinking upside down. Many think that since they've used or heard an expression 100 times before, it must be safe to use.
But do you want your writing to be safe and familiar? Or do you want it to be impactful and memorable?
That something has been repeated so frequently is the very reason you should not use it.
There's much sameness in news. We cover many house fires and shootings and car crashes. Challenge yourself to differentiate your writing from the last time you covered a house fire or a shooting or a car crash. Challenge yourself to differentiate your writing from your competitors. Plug-and-play, formulaic writing is a great way for your work to sound exactly like everyone else's.
Here's to better writing in 2021!