Download Omit unnecessary words. Each word must serve its

The Blackman Voice Stylebook
AP (Associated Press) Style is guided by brevity, clarity, consistency and accuracy. This is the
gold standard. Their stylebook is indispensable. Every journalist, columnist and contributor
should possess a copy.
Omit unnecessary words. Each word must serve its function -- there is no place in good writing
for superfluous speech. In journalism, get to the point.
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a
paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no
unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”
Frequently overused, misspelled or misused words and phrases:
 That - can often be omitted entirely and never synonymous for who. People who write,
weather that changes. Better yet, writers and changing weather.
 that vs. who: one involves things, the other people. However, see above for omitting it
altogether.
 Sophomore, not sophmore
 Avoid using common adjectives and adverbs such as: very, nice, good, big, and other
blah words
Basic grammar and style
 To be verbs - write primarily in the active voice. He wrote, not he had written.
 Avoid lame sentences. Make your writing interesting through your use of sentence
structure and words. Be specific and concrete:
o Ex. “A period of unfavorable weather set in” vs. “It rained every day for a week.”
o Precision is important to help your audience understand.
 Use past tense verbs unless it is occurring in the future. Never write in present tense!
 Avoid using the word ‘not’ when there is a more precise word: not honest vs. dishonest.
 Use a variety of sentence structures. Do not use only simple sentences, compound
sentences, or complex sentences. Use all three. Try to avoid compound-complex
sentences in journalistic writing because they are more difficult to follow.
Double check writing for proper usage of these most commonly misused words:
○ their, there and they’re
○ lie (to recline) and lay (to set down)
○ i.e. (in other words) and e.g. (examples given, lists)
○ farther (distance) and further (advancement)
○ accept (to take) and except (apart from)
Adapted from the Murfreesboro Post’s Writing Tips for Contributors
The Blackman Voice Stylebook
○ it’s (it is) and its (ownership)
○ effect (makes change) and affect (result of change)
○ complementary (things that go well together) and complimentary (free, praise)
○ principal (person), principle (ideal)
○ isle (island) and aisle (corridor or path)
○ set (to place something) and sit (to be seated)
○ than (used to compare) and then (used to denote time)
○ whose (a question word) and who’s (who is)
○ your (belongs to someone) and you’re (you are)
Titles, Positions, and Quotes
 No Miss, Ms., Mr., or Mrs. EVER.
 The following are correct:
Dr. Leisa Justus, principal
Tim Pedigo, assistant principal OR Assistant Principal Tim Pedigo
Coach David Watson OR David Watson, head football coach
 If the coach also teaches, and you are writing an article about his/her teaching, not
coaching, use the teaching assignment, not the coaching assignment.
 Refer to people as their first and last name, either proceeded or followed by their title the
first time you mention them, and after that, ONLY USE THE LAST NAME.
 Use “said” or “stated” for quotes, FOLLOWING, not preceding the quote.
 Ex. “The football game was toughest we have played this year,” stated Watson.
Numbers and Abbreviations
 Use words for numbers one through nine, digits beginning with 10, unless it’s the first
word of a sentence.
 Never spell out the year. In 1968, not in nineteen sixty-eight.
 Dates should be written as September 19, 2016, OR September 19th if the year is implied
by when the article is written.
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Basic Grammar & Punctuation
Caps lock is for social media, not emphasis. This is journalism. Use words!
Titles of books, movies, TV shows, magazines, newspapers and album titles are italicized.
Titles of poems, songs, episodes of TV shows, and articles are quoted.
LIMIT exclamation points! Use words to emphasize points, not punctuation.
Capitalize proper nouns, the beginning of sentences, titles preceding names, book and movie
titles, all words except articles in headlines.
Do not capitalize common nouns, titles following names, or occupations.
Adapted from the Murfreesboro Post’s Writing Tips for Contributors
The Blackman Voice Stylebook
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Subject-verb agreement
 A singular subject usually needs a verb that ends in S
 Plural subjects generally use verbs without S
 There are some exceptions like child and children.
● Use of Quotes:
Use the single quote (‘) in ONLY two instances:
 within another quote- “He fired his gun and said ‘Everybody on the floor,’” the
witness told the officer.
 within a headline- Mayor ‘frustrated’ with council’s actions (no double quotes in
headlines)
PUNCTUATION
*All punctuation goes inside the quotations.
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em dash: space dash dash space (often the word processing program will make
one longer, unbroken em dash.) USED FOR EMPHASIS – USE RARELY.
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ellipsis: dot space dot space dot space . . . NOT ...
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apostrophe: ’s means ownership singular, s’ shows ownership plural (unless it
ends in ‘s’ like Lois’s
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hyphenation: use hyphen when multiple modifier is used (green-colored shirt)
Commas: Follow regular English comma rules for items in a series, etc.
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Use a comma for two independent clauses joined together by a conjunction.
Avoid common splices
Correct: Officer Jones apprehended the suspect, and he placed him inside the
squad car. Incorrect: Officer Jones apprehended the suspect, he placed him
inside the squad car. (NOTE the lack of conjunction.)
Ex. Officer Jones apprehended the suspect and placed him inside the squad car.
(note how the two are different)
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Use a comma after an introductory element.
Ex. After parting the Red Sea, Moses took a nap.
Semicolon:
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Use to separate independent clauses without a conjunction, or better yet, use a
period.
Use in a series when titles are being used with names
Adapted from the Murfreesboro Post’s Writing Tips for Contributors
The Blackman Voice Stylebook
Ex. From left is Mandy Smith, director of marketing; Jeff Jones, president; Sally
Thompson, manager; and Dave Lilly, head of personnel.
Other:
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Only use one space between words and sentences.
Use 1-3 sentence paragraphs only.
NO first person unless it’s APPROVED by Walker ahead of time.
EDIT YOUR OWN WORK! You don’t want the BHS world to see your work as
a rough draft.
Avoid words that are too simple or too fancy.
Avoid your opinion or any opinionated words that cannot be supported by facts or
examples, even in a direct quote or an opinion piece.
REVISE, REVISE, REVISE. Never be satisfied with your first or second draft.
After you’ve written a third (or ninth!) draft, proofread your writing, have another
person proofread it with you, and only then, submit it to your section editor or
copy editor for editing.
Photography and the Cameras:
 Take your own photos as much as possible.
 Take ACTION photos, not staged photos or just headshots.
 Take multiple photos, from multiple angles, to ensure at least one good shot.
 Don’t stop to look at them. Open on the computer. Delete what you don’t need. Upload
the rest to OneNote with the event, student names, and grades under the photo.
 When you have copied them to OneNote, delete them from the memory card while you
are on the computer.
 Check the camera to make sure the battery doesn’t need charging. If it does, charge it.
Make sure to remove the battery as soon as it is charged. An overcharged battery wears
out faster.
 Make sure to sign the camera out and back in.
 MOST IMPORTANT: CHECK to see if we have permission to use the student’s photos.
If we don’t have signed permission from their parents, it is ILLEGAL to use their name
or photo in an online publication. This is a child safety issue.
Adapted from the Murfreesboro Post’s Writing Tips for Contributors