{"id":346,"date":"2011-11-01T16:29:01","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T03:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=346"},"modified":"2011-11-01T16:29:01","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T03:29:01","slug":"make-it-clear-keep-it-simple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"Make it clear, keep it simple"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My first paid writing job was with an advertising agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I applied for an art job, but there weren\u2019t any.\u00a0 \u2018We do need a junior writer though,\u2019 the MD said.\u00a0 \u2018Why don\u2019t you do that until there\u2019s an opening in the art department?\u2019<\/p>\n

I had no experience of writing advertising copy.\u00a0 But the MD didn\u2019t seem to mind.\u00a0 \u2018I think you can write,\u2019 he said.\u00a0 \u2018And we have a training programme.\u00a0 We call it \u201cdo it, review it, and do it again\u201d.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

The programme seemed to work.\u00a0 Within three weeks, I was earning my keep.<\/p>\n

After my first week in the creative department, the senior writer took me out to lunch.\u00a0 (Ah, yes.\u00a0 Those wonderful Friday lunches.)<\/p>\n

\u2018There are really only two things you need to remember,\u2019 he said.\u00a0 \u2018Before you start, make sure that you know exactly what you want to say.\u00a0 And, when you are finished, make sure that you have, in fact, said it.\u00a0 Oh, and keep it simple.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was good advice.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a pity that David is no longer around to give the same advice to some of the people currently responsible for \u2018the news\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While I find most opinion pieces reasonably well thought out and well written (even when the opinion is not one that I share), the same cannot be said for many news stories.<\/p>\n

Too many stories begin with a grossly overloaded paragraph vaguely supporting an overly sensational headline.<\/p>\n

Typically, the story then heads off in a different direction altogether, leaving the poor reader to wonder if he or she somehow misread the first paragraph.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is often followed by a not-very-illuminating quote from an \u2018expert\u2019 \u2013 although the expert\u2019s credentials are seldom established.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(I\u2019m looking forward to the story that says: XYZ\u2019s chief economist, Delia Jones, predicts property prices will fall by as much as 30 percent in the second quarter.\u00a0 Mind you, the last time Ms Jones got it right was way back in 1996.)<\/p>\n

Finally, after squeezing in several tired clich\u00e9s, the story drifts to a wishy-washy conclusion that often contradicts the headline.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know that in the age of the 24-hour news machine, thinking time can seem a bit limited.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not really an acceptable excuse.<\/p>\n

If more journalists would think more carefully about what they want to say; and if, before pressing send, they could make sure that they\u2019ve actually said what they wanted to say; I could stop being quite so grumpy.<\/p>\n

And if they would try to say what they mean as simply as possible \u2013 resisting the temptation to cram five facts and three clich\u00e9s into a single sentence \u2013 I might even start to appreciate their skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first paid writing job was with an advertising agency.\u00a0 I applied for an art job, but there weren\u2019t any.\u00a0 \u2018We do need a junior writer though,\u2019 the MD said.\u00a0 \u2018Why don\u2019t you do that until there\u2019s an opening in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}