Properly used, adjectives can help you write good reports. But, too many adjectives result in rich and ornate prose that is hard to digest and is sometimes nauseating. Young reporters and over-eager public relations men often turn out sentences shrill with adjectives. Read this report on the former First Lady’s state visit – and weep:KYOTO, Japan, May 25 – A blue-white flash of modern magic today wafted the First Lady of the Philippines away from Tokyo’s withering clangor to the serenity of this ancient imperial realm.
Fan-twirling geishas danced and sang to the sad thrumming of the samisen and Mrs Evangelina Macapagal, with Japanese and Philippine friends, nibbled succulent yakitori and crisp-coated tempura beside an emerald lake.
At the ancient private Nomura gardens, a hidden waterfall whispered amid tall pines and spreading Japanese maples. A white swan glided with arched wings across the water, dappled only by the movement of a great, lazy goldfish tasting the cool afternoon air.
Experienced editors become suspicious when they spot adjective-laden reports. They know that oftentimes, adjectives merely cloak a report’s lack of hard facts. Adjectives also lead the writer to overstate his case. When you overstate, your reader loses confidence in your judgment. Newspaper lawyers know too well that adjectives can send readers rushing to court with a libel case. Words like reactionary, communistic, Gestapo-like, corrupt, dictatorial, paramour, querida are loaded with emptiness.
A cub reporter once wrote: “The National Waterworks and Sewerage Authority had a remarkable record for April – it provided water all day round.”
The editor sent back the report with a note: “Remarkable is not a reporting word. Leave the adjectives to the columnist. We just tell the facts. Write your story so that the readers will say: ‘That is remarkable!’ For adjectives then, the rule is: “Do not use any – if possible. People will understand you better without them.”
45 comments:
Adjectives make articles pretty but newspapers don't aim to be pretty. Keep the flowery words reserved in a closet and prefer the hard hitting verbs.
Also, how you describe(adjectives) is a matter of opinion. Some opinions are so far fetched from others that it may be flagged offensive. Don't let adjectives be the cause of a hind sight bias.
Creative writing is different from journalistic writing. In creative writing, it is better to use adjective since your goal there is to make your audience imagine. In journalistic writing, your goal is to inform that is why you only need to write the exact thing they need to know.
I read books very seldom that is why my vocabulary is very limited. I often read books with very difficult words especially adjectives. This makes me understand less what I am reading. So for me, this rue is very important.
You should write to inform not to impress.
I like using adjectives to beautify my works but sometimes, I admit, that I go overboard because I use adjectives too much. When you want to surprise your readers, why not hit off your sentence with a hard-hitting adjective? It's not bad if you use adjectives sometimes but just not too much. You article might look too flowery and too trying hard.
Adjectives are better in features not in news. In which case, tend to lessen your use of adjectives. It's like a warning label saying: Use Sparingly. Why? Because you tend make your article too colorful that the true sense of your writing is gone.People will see you as someone who lack the facts. You just tend to prolong it by using adjectives that are ought to be omitted anyway.
Adjectives makes our sentence better and more colorful, but do not over use your adjectives. Too much is always not good, so be ware of how you use your adjectives in your sentence.
Excessive adjectives doesn't fit journalistic writing. It is good in creative writing but not in journlistic writing. Excessive adjectives make the sense of the article exaggerated. Only the important adjectives can appear in a news article.
Use adjectives moderately. Adjectives are okay, just don't overuse them because it tends to make it all flowery. Using too much adjectives might give out a different meaning than what you intend.
"The gorgeous Megan Fox"
well, maybe that's just me.
I understand if people would disagree
Its a matter of personal preference.
So see? putting the adjective "gorgeous" is risky. some people can take it in.
Journalistic writing doesn't have to sound pretty. We should not use adjectives too much. This will make our work very long, too flowery, and hard to digest. When this happens, the readers will only get confused and they will have a hard time understanding it.
Jasper is right, although adjectives adds color to an article, it is not appropriate to use them in a news article. You are informing, not luring the readers to something.
You can use limiting adjectives but not descriptive ones, again the use of adjectives is subjective, as the cliche' says, "The beauty is in the eye of the beholder." You cannot say that your readers perceive things like how you do.
Adjectives bring colors to our article. But abusing it will make us lost our readers. If we don't use our words sparingly, this brings confusion to our readers whether we are telling them the truth or we are just fooling them. So use adjectives sparingly.
Way back in grade school, I used to think that using too much adjectives would make my articles better. Still, many writers think it is a wise idea to impress reader, but making everything flowery won’t help you. You write to inform.
We should use adjectives sparingly because we don't need make the readers imagine exactly what the scene looks like or something. And adjectives only makes our sentences longer and sometimes may lead to confusion so use it sparingly.
Yes. Our adjectives do make our writings more informative but to much use of adjectives makes our writings sound like poem.
Adjectives are one of the most colorful parts of speech. But in journalistic writing, they need to be used sparingly. They tend to overstate facts that the reader loses interest in the material. The readers do not need to know that the “temple” you are talking about is ancient and private. Also, too much use of adjectives tends to cover up the facts, which make the article worthless. I certainly agree with the last line of the orig. post. Journalistic writings aim to inform, not to describe.
Adjectives do make an article prettier. But in journalistic writing, we don’t need pretty articles. We need hard and strong words. Save your flowery words to your stories, journalism doesn’t need them.
Too much adjectives can lead to exaggeration of the scene which let readers to be annoyed. I think some writers think that these flowery words could impress the readers. But it actually implies that the writers have lack of facts so they will just rely on their adjectives.
I believe one of the reasons why some students do not revise their work is that feel not in the mood to do it or just they are too confident that it is a good one. I also agree with what Jasper said because some writers tend to fall in love their work. One more thing, there is really no thing to be ashamed of when you revise. Believe me!
We use adjectives to add color and life to our articles but too much of adjective can really be awkward for the readers.Also, our work doesn't have to sound good as long as it gives the information the readers want to know.
Adjectives may give a good article but that’s not the case in journalistic writing. Adjectives, when used too much would make it harder to understand. People would understand you better if you were to use little to no adjectives at all. Some would even say that an article filled with adjectives lacks hard facts. That is why we should rarely used adjectives.
Adjectives may give a good article but that’s not the case in journalistic writing. Adjectives, when used too much would make it harder to understand. People would understand you better if you were to use little to no adjectives at all. Some would even say that an article filled with adjectives lacks hard facts. That is why we should rarely used adjectives.
This rule, we sometimes overlook in both speaking and writing. Adjectives may add flavor, but too much is still too much. Only use adjectives if the need arises.
Most of the time, whenever we write articles, we used many adjectives and flowery words that would make our paragraphs long and full of information. We cover up for the mere data and information we have gathered when it only drifts away from the fact that what we are actually writing are news articles.
We do journalistic writing, not creative. We inform, not describe. We must limit ourselves in using adjectives because it makes our work very flowery and hard to be understood.
I agree to this rule because this only shows exaggeration and lack of information. If you use adjectives too much, people would think that you are emphasizing too much, thus, making them lose their trust that what you are writing is true. As much as possible, base your statements on facts not embellishing words.
Leo Amadeus Gerella Ruiz
Using adjectives sparingly is just logical. We don't need to overuse modifiers. We don't need excess adjectives just to intensify the quality or description.
In Journalistic writing you have to speak the facts with exactness. You can not add so much adjectives or else your credibility will hang in the balance. Why? The reason is that something which is beautiful to you might not be beautiful to others. And you will have a lot of fans gladly throwing tomatoes at your windows.
Adjectives are words that you use in an article that others may not agree to. It is like saying, “Sharon Cuneta is the best actress.” Sharonians may agree but, how about the Vilmanians? Adjectives may reflect an opinionated idea which doest not, in any way, stress the writers aim to inform.
In creative writing, adjectives add color to our work. But in journalism, adjectives are really not that necessary. We do not need flowery words in writing articles. What we need in journalism is straight information without the sprinkle of too much adjectives.
Adjectives may give your article color. But that's not the point, the point is that for you to inform readers. Yes, it's also for entertainment, but duh, using too much adjectives to your sentences makes your article harder to understand. So better apply this rule.
Ma Inna Paulina Egamino Palana
IV - Enrico Fermi
Fe-15
I really hate reading a book or any reading materials that has so many adjectives in it. Though adjectives are really important, especially if the writer is narrating a story, over-use of it is an abuse to the eyes. A good thing to do is to just let that thing you are about to describe as it is if it is already very common and no longer needs any description. Work on those terms that seem to be complicated to most of your readers first. And be careful on what adjective you are using; readers are sometimes getting confused on what they reading that wrong ideas are being spread rather than the right one.
Keep in mind that you are writing a journalistic article... not a personal essay. The use of adjectives is like giving your own opinion. This is wrong. The writer gives the facts. It's the readers that does the interpretting.
The use of adjectives truly makes our works better. They add color to our works. But, we should also be careful on using them. Adjectives are often based form opinions. And of course, people have different opinions. So, this would make an argue and confusion. so, use them sparingly.
The use of adjectives truly makes our works better. They add color to our works. But, we should also be careful on using them. Adjectives are often based form opinions. And of course, people have different opinions. So, this would make an argue and confusion. so, use them sparingly.
When Mr Escote asked us to revise our personal essays, I wondered why. But now I know the answer. Revision is necessary in writing. By revising and sharpening, we will be able to realize the mistakes that we have committed. We also get the chance of changing them. Revising will make our work a better one.
Adjectives adds feeling to our articles. It adds emotion but it is not needed in writing articles. We should only have one aim in writing, that is to inform and not boast all the adjectives we know.
Adding to Mr Ungson's insight, I believe that adjectives just make the noun informative ONCE. It's just like disposable cellphones, Once used, even crime scene investigators(readers) have a hard time recovering what other motives(other unnecessary additions that the writer wants to add) the suspect(writer) has in plan. Think about this : an article is about the victory of a Jewish woman in Italian courts. Would you see the words "short", "stout" and "likes to organize colored things" before the word "woman". Of course not! you just only need the word Jewish and it's done. Topic Solved.
For me, if I want to be informed, I would be searching for three things: the doer, the verb and the reciever. Most of the time people will not care on the description of the doer or reciever unless it is very necessary. Besides, more adjectives will only make your sentences and paragraphs longer, so you are breaking multiple rules.
Adjectives may alter the message of your article so limit using them in journalism because we aim to tell the readers news. “For adjectives then, the rule is: Do not use any – if possible. People will understand you better without them.” I strongly agree. We're not in Creative Writing anyway.
Revising and editing makes us realize certain improvements for our work, thus making our articles even better. You may find some errors that may not be following the other rules. Or maybe some grammar errors . Revising and sharpening is a part of the writing scene anyways.
Adjectives may alter the message of your article so limit using them in journalism because we aim to tell the readers news. “For adjectives then, the rule is: Do not use any – if possible. People will understand you better without them.” I strongly agree. We're not in Creative Writing anyway.
As a writer, we write to express an information about the event not our own idea of describing what happen. We don't need to share what is our own idea about the situation. Just write what the readers must know and leave the comments to them.
The main objective of a writer is to inform. He must write only to tell the readers what happened in an important event. He must not tell his/her idea about the event by describing it using adjectives. As a journalism writer, you must communicate to the readers through your news but leave the comment to them
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