Preface

This book aims to help not only students on journalism and media studies courses, but also anybody at any stage of life who wants to get into journalism, whether staff or freelance, and practising journalists who want to extend their range. The emphasis is on aspects still neglected in books on writing skills. Those aspects are: first, the need to have something to say, and second, the need to adapt content to different audiences. To put it another way, I have concentrated on how to find good ideas and how to develop them in different ways. I have therefore commented on extracts from a wide spectrum of published articles.

How to use this book

I suggest reading it straight through and then referring to specific chapters as necessary. Each chapter attempts to be fairly comprehensive about its topic so there is a little unavoidable repetition.

In this edition I have improved, and added to the number of, assignments and suggested responses. Feedback from tutors, students and practising journalists have helped me to do so. Nevertheless, these sections are intended as guides only. They have been formulated so that tutors and readers can easily adapt them to their specific requirements. I have again kept in mind the requirements of the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in news and periodical journalism and the requirements of the NCTJ and other training courses. As always, feedback from readers, based on their own experience of using the book, will be welcome and should be addressed to me, c/o the publisher.

Brendan Hennessy

South Norwood

London