Three Things - 3.2.23

Look! Today’s a palindrome (if you write the date European style). Why do I still like noticing this? Anyway, hope you’re having a good week. Here are three things to think about as you go into the weekend – enjoy.

1. What are journalists even for?

One of my clients got me thinking the other day. He was trying to figure out how can it be that he, as a regular (albeit professional and educated) guy can be in a position to write a news story about a topic he’s not an expert in? Why don’t the experts just write the stories? Why doesn’t the public just listen to what the experts are saying? Who needs journalists, really?

So we got talking about the role journalists and news organizations play in society.

I have two gut feelings on this. One, journalists are really important – the good ones inspire more trust from the public than even experts or government authorities, because good journalists always do their best to say things that are well-informed, accurate and truthful. And obviously, a big role for journalists is holding power to account.

Two, one of the main functions of journalists is to translate. We take things that other people say and present them in a more useful, easy to digest and, possibly, more entertaining way. On balance, that’s a good thing. Though obviously there are myriad ways it can go horribly wrong.

This must be the topic of an essay question every first year journalism student has to write. I’m really interested to hear your take - whether you’re a journalist or not.?

2. Even style guides have limits

The AP had an incident recently with their style guidance. To avoid terms that can be dehumanising, they suggested writers stop saying things like “the disabled,” “the poor,” or “the French.” French people got a big kick out of that.

It reminds us that style guides and grammar rules can be both useful and useless. The point of the rules is to make your writing clearer and, perhaps, more sensitive. But there’s always a risk of taking things too far. Pedantry is boring and a? waste of time – years ago at Bloomberg, we could only use the word “decimate” if we were talking about the destruction of one-tenth of something. And I found myself getting wound up this week over the difference between “damp” and “dampen.” (Spoiler: they mean the same thing.)

In the end, the best measure of your writing is just whether you’ve made yourself understood. As Orwell said, break the rules sooner than saying anything barbarous.

3. How to get articles published

As you may have already experienced, getting articles published can be a long and frustrating process. Even the best writers with good ideas get rejected.

We’ve pulled together a short guide where we show you the practical things you should be doing, as well as the mindset shifts you need to make, so that you’re not giving up before you’ve even got started.

Want more?

You can complement this edition of Three Things by joining The Newsroom, our growing community of journalism buffs on LinkedIn and Facebook. The Newsroom is a place to ask questions, get advice, make connections.

News Writing 101

Do you want a taste of sitting across the desk from me as your newsroom mentor? Have you been trying to write a couple of news stories but they sound like essays you wrote at school? We have just the thing.

We’re excited to say that our New Writing 101 course is live! It’s 1.5 hours of bite-sized videos and short homework assignments to teach you the basics of writing a news story. In easy to follow chunks, you’ll learn about the five elements of news and what you need to be doing to keep the reader reading. Check it out.

And, as always, please give me feedback. Which thing above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just drop me a line at [email protected] and put #3Things at the end so I can find it.

Have a great weekend.