Exercises
Exercise: Clichés, jargon & journalese
Journalists need to recognise and then avoid using journalese, jargon, and clichés. Their writing must be clear, easy to understand, and informative. This exercise is designed to help spot all three.
Exercise: Editorialising is not for news
Editorialising should be avoided in news reporting because it blurs the line between fact and opinion, undermining accuracy, fairness, and public trust. This exercise is designed to help journalists recognise editorialising and avoid it.
Exercise: Developing important news angles
Finding new angles on developing news stories is essential. Journalists must explain how news events impact their audience's lives. This exercise will help reporters find out how.
Exercise: Adjectives and adverbs in journalism
Journalists should not waste words. Their writing should be concise and tight. Adjectives and adverbs clutter up news stories and should be avoided wherever possible.
Exercise: The inverted pyramid in practice
The inverted pyramid model places the most fundamental and newsworthy information at the top followed by supporting details, with the least important background information at the bottom.
Exercise: Questions every journalist should ask
There are six questions that a journalists should consider asking. They are What? Why? When? How? Where? and Who? This exercise considers their use in journalism.
Exercise: Understanding unconscious bias
This exercise is designed to help journalists understand how unconscious bias can undermine journalistic integrity and distort how news is covered.
Exercise: The active and passive voices in news
Many news stories are about action. This exercise looks at how journalist use the active voice to capture that action in their writing and seize the attention of the audience.