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Title: The Associated Press Guide to News Writing by Rene J. Cappon, Associated Press ISBN: 0-13-053679-2 Publisher: Petersons Pub. Date: 01 July, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.87 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Not just for Journalists
Comment: This book is a must reference for journalists. It is small enough to be read and re-read many times. Every journalist should be forced to read this book, and be quizzed on it, every six months. It would save the rest of us from having to read the awful writing in the manistream press. Even a non-journalist would enjoy this book. It will give you some insight into how news stories are written. Also, if you catch a journalist breaking these simple "how to" rules, you can move on to another more well written story.
Personally, I would rather read a well written story about a topic in which I have no interest, than a poorly written story about something for which I am passionate.
Rating: 5
Summary: Concise, readable, and informative
Comment: I wish I had had this book when I started writing.
Now that I copy edit, I've made our editor-in-chief buy it for all of the writers.
In a completely readable way, it demonstrates how to write clean, effective copy.
If you're vaguely dissastisfied with your writing, or if have any desire to write for publication, then get this book. It will improve your writing at least 100 per cent.
Rating: 5
Summary: How to avoid an attack of The Elongated Yellow Fruit
Comment: "The Associated Press Guide to News Writing" makes more points in 136 pages than do most writing books four times the size. One would expect no less from a master news editor like Rene Chappon. The formula Cappon follows is to write a very brief explanation of a problem; an example of the problem; a sentence dissecting the example; a rewriting of the problem sentence; and a summary of the topic. The result is almost always memorable. Consider this typical section on The Elegant Variation (capitalized words below are italicized in the original):
***
Writers who believe that the repetition of plain words within shouting distance of each other is crude take off on synonym safaris.... It's all the more grotesque as there are few true synonyms and the author may introduce misfits:
"The mayor's task force was asked to meet with the owners of the STRUCTURES, discuss whether they wanted their BUILDINGS preserved, and recommend ways to adapt older EDIFICES to new use."
STRUCTURES could be anything and EDIFICES is too grandiose; the story concerns commercial and apartment buildings. If the author didn't want to repeat BUILDINGS, a pronoun was the way out:
"...to meet with the owners of the buildings, discuss whether they wanted THEM preserved, and recommend ways to adapt the older ones to new uses."
The same craving for daintiness will convert elephants to PACHYDERMS, dogs to CANINES, cats to FELINES, tigers to STRIPED PREDATORS and cars to VEHICLES. Petroleum becomes BLACK GOLD, snow becomes WHITE POWDER (a justly forgotten poet once called it "God's dandruff"), a banana turns into THE ELONGATED YELLOW FRUIT.
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The benefit of this style is that Cappon's admonitions pop up unasked whenever we commit one of the sins he identifies. I find that "elongated yellow fruit" frequently superimposes itself on my more tortured prose.
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Title: The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law by Norm Goldstein, Associated Press ISBN: 0738207403 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 02 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation by Rene Jack Cappon, Jack Cappon ISBN: 0738207853 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Associated Press Reporting Handbook by Jerry Schwartz ISBN: 0071372172 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 28 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Elements of Journalism : What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect by TOM ROSENSTIEL, BILL KOVACH ISBN: 0609806912 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 26 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Art and Craft of Feature Writing by William E. Blundell ISBN: 0452261589 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: November, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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