Journalese – One Minute to Better Writing

“I will have you know that I have several hundred writes under my belt.”  the writer exclaimed when his credentials were questioned.

“Writes”, how precious. 

I know what he means, but this could spell trouble if this writer is going to be a teacher, or even worse – an editor.

It was just a casual note.  Yes, but he should know better, twisting a verb into a noun.  It’s a form of writing that can wring words and parts of speech into knots all over a page.

He could have said “I’ve paid my dues having written numerous articles”.  Instead he chose to use a banana to do the job of a spoon.

It’s called “journalese”.  A shorthand for conveying thoughts quickly and with flash.  The problem is that it verges on cliche, and then can go on to pile more cliches on top of the first.  Now there is nothing wrong with using journalese, but let’s not pretend that it’s the same as non-journalistic writing.

Image via Wikipedia

Suppose we were describing a dinner party and said “The guest list of famous male Hollywood actors present at the dinner…” as opposed to “The hot beef was on display…”.  It does nothing for the class or style of what is being written about.  It does shorten things up a bit, but isn’t that just laziness?  And we have again contributed to an ever growing pile of cliches.

This is great if you’re a journalist who is looking for “shock & awe” with their statements.  But usually not for the serious writer, teacher, or editor. (notice my own use of cliche)

So, man up all you scribblers, a dog knows when to scratch the itch and when to leave the flea alone.

Can you dig it?