Good Language

The drive for reporters to use direct, conversational language does not mean that sloppiness is acceptable. What is wanted is the most appropriate and accurate word. Unfortunately, many which trip off the average writer’s word processor are chosen without much thought as to their meaning.

Anyone who has the temerity to offer advice to others on the use of language is asking for trouble. But it is worth the risk to point out that it does no journalist harm to refresh the memory from time to time. For those who take pride in what they do there are many excellent reference books, from the learned to the down-to-earth, offering guidelines on structure, definitions and grammar.

Slang

The line between colloquial language and slang is a thin one, easily crossed. The distinction is made all the more difficult because the word or expression frowned on yesterday becomes absorbed into normal speech patterns today, and becomes a dictionary entry tomorrow. My advice is to be cautious–let the lexicographers set the pace.

Eponyms

Where would we be without (the 4th Earl of) Sandwich, (Anders), Celsius, (Captain Charles) Boycott, (André) Amp(ère) and the rest who gave their names to household words? But there is a difference between eponyms and trade names. Not every vacuum cleaner is a (William) Hoover, nor every ballpoint pen a (Laszlo) Biro. Legal actions have been fought over careless uses which have brought trade names of products into disrepute.

Clichés

There is a long list of stock phrases kept by journalists in their writing armouries. Not that they necessarily like using them–journalists make jokes against themselves about news stories composed entirely of clichés, and would much prefer to invent elegant alternatives. Those given to the occasional lapse under pressure can be forgiven: for the rest, a close scrutiny of Roget’s Thesaurus is strongly recommended.

Acronyms

These constitute a form of jargon. Some have passed into the language as dictionary entries, NATO and the UN among them. But they need to be understood by the writer. In military parlance the acronym SAM, for example, is short for ‘surface-to-air missile’–so to describe it as a ‘SAM missile’ is in fact saying ‘surface-to-air missile missile’. Similarly, in Britain, the ‘M1’: in this context ‘M’ stands for motorway–so to describe the ‘M1’ as the ‘M1 motorway’ is saying ‘motorway-1 motorway’.