Newspaper writing follows its own rules
English teachers are our friends.
Many journalists can attribute their early writing experiences and their desire to communicate using the written word to a high school English teacher who provided direction and support for their efforts.
That said, English teachers frequently don't "get" journalists. That is in part because, though we follow some basic English guidelines, we work from our own set of rules.
Those rules or guidelines come to us in the form of The Associated Press Stylebook, designed primarily to encourage consistency among newspapers in America.
For example, Webster's dictionary lists catalogue as the first, and apparently preferred, way of spelling the word that means, "a systemized, usually descriptive list."
But most U. S. journalists spell it catalog (cataloged, cataloging), because the AP stylebook tells us to.
We also leave out the last comma in a series, i. e., "It rained cats, dogs and parakeets."
Some guidelines, like the comma omission, are part of the long-held journalistic standard to keep stories as short as possible by eliminating unnecessary characters, but the stylebook's basic purpose is to make stories consistent regardless of their origin.
The book is described in its foreword as: "Far more than a collection of rules, the book became part dictionary, part encyclopedia, part textbook." It's been around since before I was born and originally consisted of 60 pages stapled together.
That was still its configuration when I studied journalism and graduated from college, when virtual memorization of the book was required.
Today, the spiral book is more than 430 pages and the real key to its use is to know when to look something up and where to look for it.
It is a font of information, not to be confused with font, "a full set of printing type of the same size and face," which is in the dictionary, but not in the stylebook.
On a single page you can discover a list of the countries in the G-8 (an abbreviated form of Group of Eight): the United States, France, Russia, Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada.
You also can learn that General Dynamics Corp. is headquartered in Falls Church, Va., and General Electric Co. is headquartered in Fairfield, Conn.
Another often misused explanation on that same page tells us it is the Geneva Conventions, not convention.
The book can teach you that the plural of kibbutz ("An Israeli collective settlement") is kibbutzim, that Katmandu is the "preferred spelling of the capital of Nepal," or that you can convert Fahrenheit to Celsius by multiplying the Celsius temperature by 9, dividing by 5, and adding 32 ("25 x 9 equals 225, divided by 5 equals 45, plus 32 equals 77 degrees Fahrenheit").
At the very least, it's a dream come true for trivia buffs or Jeopardy fans.
Sometimes readers, English teachers in particular, call to tell us we've made a mistake when, in fact, we have simply followed AP style.
One very adamant reader called a few months back to tell me how illiterate one of our writers must be for referencing running a gantlet when the word was supposed to be gauntlet.
He was right; she was wrong.
In fact, as the AP stylebook explains, a gantlet is "a flogging ordeal, literally or figuratively. A gauntlet is a glove. To throw down the gauntlet means to issue a challenge. To take up the gauntlet means to accept a challenge."
Another favorite of callers is the use of "just deserts," which many want to tell us should be desserts.
It's a common mistake and, again, it's in the dictionary rather than the stylebook. The single "s" is correct because it is based on the word deserve.
The stylebook, like our ever-changing language, also is reflective of societal evolution. New entries included: bird flu; DVR; flat-panel TV; high definition; IED; iPhone; iPod, MRSA ("acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus"); noncombatant; paparazzi; podcast; social networking; tsunami; whistle-blower; wiki; WMD and NASCAR.
So, to the English teachers and grammarians whom we sometimes offend, we apologize and beg forgiveness. We're just following our own set of rules.
Many journalists can attribute their early writing experiences and their desire to communicate using the written word to a high school English teacher who provided direction and support for their efforts.
That said, English teachers frequently don't "get" journalists. That is in part because, though we follow some basic English guidelines, we work from our own set of rules.
Those rules or guidelines come to us in the form of The Associated Press Stylebook, designed primarily to encourage consistency among newspapers in America.
For example, Webster's dictionary lists catalogue as the first, and apparently preferred, way of spelling the word that means, "a systemized, usually descriptive list."
But most U. S. journalists spell it catalog (cataloged, cataloging), because the AP stylebook tells us to.
We also leave out the last comma in a series, i. e., "It rained cats, dogs and parakeets."
Some guidelines, like the comma omission, are part of the long-held journalistic standard to keep stories as short as possible by eliminating unnecessary characters, but the stylebook's basic purpose is to make stories consistent regardless of their origin.
The book is described in its foreword as: "Far more than a collection of rules, the book became part dictionary, part encyclopedia, part textbook." It's been around since before I was born and originally consisted of 60 pages stapled together.
That was still its configuration when I studied journalism and graduated from college, when virtual memorization of the book was required.
Today, the spiral book is more than 430 pages and the real key to its use is to know when to look something up and where to look for it.
It is a font of information, not to be confused with font, "a full set of printing type of the same size and face," which is in the dictionary, but not in the stylebook.
On a single page you can discover a list of the countries in the G-8 (an abbreviated form of Group of Eight): the United States, France, Russia, Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada.
You also can learn that General Dynamics Corp. is headquartered in Falls Church, Va., and General Electric Co. is headquartered in Fairfield, Conn.
Another often misused explanation on that same page tells us it is the Geneva Conventions, not convention.
The book can teach you that the plural of kibbutz ("An Israeli collective settlement") is kibbutzim, that Katmandu is the "preferred spelling of the capital of Nepal," or that you can convert Fahrenheit to Celsius by multiplying the Celsius temperature by 9, dividing by 5, and adding 32 ("25 x 9 equals 225, divided by 5 equals 45, plus 32 equals 77 degrees Fahrenheit").
At the very least, it's a dream come true for trivia buffs or Jeopardy fans.
Sometimes readers, English teachers in particular, call to tell us we've made a mistake when, in fact, we have simply followed AP style.
One very adamant reader called a few months back to tell me how illiterate one of our writers must be for referencing running a gantlet when the word was supposed to be gauntlet.
He was right; she was wrong.
In fact, as the AP stylebook explains, a gantlet is "a flogging ordeal, literally or figuratively. A gauntlet is a glove. To throw down the gauntlet means to issue a challenge. To take up the gauntlet means to accept a challenge."
Another favorite of callers is the use of "just deserts," which many want to tell us should be desserts.
It's a common mistake and, again, it's in the dictionary rather than the stylebook. The single "s" is correct because it is based on the word deserve.
The stylebook, like our ever-changing language, also is reflective of societal evolution. New entries included: bird flu; DVR; flat-panel TV; high definition; IED; iPhone; iPod, MRSA ("acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus"); noncombatant; paparazzi; podcast; social networking; tsunami; whistle-blower; wiki; WMD and NASCAR.
So, to the English teachers and grammarians whom we sometimes offend, we apologize and beg forgiveness. We're just following our own set of rules.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 4:00 PM
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