Most of the writing we do is to inform. So it is generally a good idea to the tell the reader at the beginning what it is all about. Suspense is so important in some forms of writing, but rarely if ever in our. The “whodunit” writer aims to mystify; we aim to inform. The beginning of a piece of writing is the most important part. So start punching right off. Come to the point quickly. Get the reader into the midst of things. Start with something that matters, such as your main idea. Or tell the reader something that will make him sit and take notice. Preferably something that is of interest to him. You will find that if you pick out your main idea and state it briefly at the beginning, you will have little trouble staying on the beam after the remainder of the news story, the memo or letter or what-have-you.
And the reader will have less trouble following you, if he has some idea where you are going. Do not start off in a round-about fashion. Do not bore your reader with a long winded-introduction. If you do, he is likely to quit reading before he gets to the main idea.
And the reader will have less trouble following you, if he has some idea where you are going. Do not start off in a round-about fashion. Do not bore your reader with a long winded-introduction. If you do, he is likely to quit reading before he gets to the main idea.
46 comments:
Often times, we tend to go around the bush. This shies away our readers because of confusion. No matter how interesting your topic is, if your writing is not understandable, it is useless. So, this rule says that we should not overdo our messages. We should stick to the basic and pin point right away what we are trying to convey.As the cliche' states, "Less is more."
I totally agree with this rule. It is because I noticed that in the newspaper, some articles are too long but the message is just repeated or there is a too long introduction before the writer tackles his thoughts on an issue. Actually these long articles could be reduced to a 2-3 paragraphs, which make readers get the point faster than the longer one. If some writers continue to do this trend then I am sure that in no time they will lose their readers.
Sometimes when we lack information we tend to include unnecessary things in our article.The best remedy for this is to of course gather enough information for your article. As a reader, i experienced being bored with articles which do not get to the point quickly. So, it is really advisable to start punching right your readers off.
I cannot imagine a news article that gives more importance on entertaining rather than informing. That is exactly what a journalist does when he takes on the role of a thriller writer when writing for a newspaper. Sure, featured articles are meant also to entertain, but that does not permit a grand orchestra for an opening act. The truth of the matter is, newspapers aren't read over the weekend, on your hazy afternoons or before going to sleep. Newspapers in a cliched picture is read during the rush of the morning with a mug of hot coffee. The setting is most probably different for most of us, but the point in this illustration is that the purpose of a newspaper leans more on necessity more than luxury. There's a reason why STAR only puts comics on their Sunday newspapers. Lastly, don't waste your readers time.
In writing, we are supposed to write about a specific idea. So, we must stick to that idea and not insert other ideas just to lengthen your work and for it to look seemingly impressive.So, just get to the point.
Oftentimes, when we write articles, we tend to use more words than actually needed. This is because most of us thinks that the longer the paragraph is, the better and the higher our grade will be. But in most cases, lengthening our paragraphs only results to incoherent sentences, making our article useless and hard to understand. In journalistic writing, we aim to inform, not to impress or mistify our readers. It is better to read an article with only 2-3 paragraphs than one with more paragraphs but provides less substance. Going around the bush only bores our readers thus resulting to half-read articles..
Going around the bush is one of the unforgivable sins in journaslistic writing. Since your aim in journalistic writing is to bring news, you need to immediately feed the people the information they crave for. Go straight to the point and your readers will appreciate your short articles.
Actually, this was our report. The point here is for you to be straight to the point. In my previous comment in Rule No. 1, I stated there what my teacher used to say,"Writing is like a pathway..." You need to be straightforward so that your readers would not get bored. Especially to those who are fond of adding extra details that are ought to be omitted. It's a save in time and effort.
Writers, especially amateur ones, especially students like us, love the idea of beating around the bush. We think that having a long and dragging sentence will get us far and eventually win our reader's view but that's not always the case. Most of the times, when the reader sees that the first sentence is full of dragging sentences, he will get lazy and be bored and not read it anymore. If that happens, it's almost like you lost an eighth of your life. When we cannot think anymore of what to write, we start to include unnecessary information in our essays and articles. Why not start your sentence with the subject then just add more details afterwards, right? You're just makig yourself suffer by always beating around the bush.
Beating around the bush is a sign that you do not know your topic. The more you do it, the more confusing the outcome of your article will be. Journalism is made for communication. How can you communicate when your output is off the topic that you can't understand it even by yourself? How about your readers? Just remember to get to the point. Like an archer, he wants to hit the center of his target. Journalist must hit their target readers so that we can easily communicate to your readers.
I don't really appreciate articles that are so long, specially if it just tried to go around the topic without even specifying the whole point of writing. So, we have to stop going around, trying to pro long our sentences even though the article does not make sense anymore. It doesn't matter how long or short you article is, what is important is that we made an article which is clear and could be easily understand by the readers. :)
In journalistic writing, there is no need for a lot of frilly words or long sentences. Long articles tend to become boring and uninteresting so keep it short by getting straight to your point. This rule applies to editorial writing and news writing.
Often times, we tend to make our writing longer by stating different unnecessary things. When we do this, it makes the readers to get bored. They also feel tired of reading and sometimes, they do not continue on reading especially when we write news story. People who are in a hurry only read the first part of most news articles. Because of this, we should be getting to the point immediately because if not, our articles will be senseless and unhelpful.
Beating around the bush is an evident sign of lack of information. If you're a well learned writer you should know that a good journalistic article is supposed to be short and intellectual. It's not a who-gets-the-most-number-of-high-highfalutin-words contest.
A lot of writers tend to beat around the bush but they do not know that in journalistic writing, beating around the bush is a big no-no. Journalists should tell what the article is all about at the beginning of the sentence. We should not include unnecessary information because this would only confuse and frustrate the readers. Most readers don’t want to read articles which beat around the bush. This would make all the hard work you put in your article go to waste. So just get straight to the point because this would make your readers understand your article easier.
I fully agree to this rule. Of course , in journalistic writing, we inform readers. We must be straight to the point so that readers won't be confused. They usually get annoyed when an article is not informing them straight to the point and they might no read your article anymore. So follow the second rule:Get to the Point so that you will have many readers.
Maria Patricia Caluag De Mesa
In Journalism, we should write the message we want to say right away. We will bore our readers when we put unnecessary sentences. We will also confuse readers when we write not direct to the point.
For the second rule, this is a common mistake for some writers. Honestly, I have done this kind of thing where I say or write a lot of things that are of less importance. We all should just get to the point so that we would not confuse our reader’s mind. It is completely boring to read about something that takes you long before you even get a hint of what it is about.
I highly agree with this rule. Journalists must get to the point because the readers will get bored when the news is "pasikot=sikot". Always keep in mind that readers read your article because they are searching for information and not for anything else.
The second rule. It sounds very simple but often times we forget to follow this rule. I myself is guilty of not getting to the point. When we get to straight to the point our articles would be more informative, less time consuming and interesting enough for our readers. When we follow rule no. 2 we are actually doing ourselves a favor.
This rule is somehow connected to the first one. After organizing your thoughts and want to write it on paper, go directly to the point that you want to state. No going around the bush whatsoever. Your readers will only get confused if you tackle one idea to another and those ideas are not even related to your main topic. We should get to the cold hard facts right away but not to the point of exaggerating them, as this frequently creates confusion. We should state what relevant and forget what’s not.
Say what you need to say.
As everyone has mentioned, the first rule is true. No one can write without even thinking first. I really agree on the first rule because I believe that an article that is not well-thought out is an article full of nonsense. Everyone, even the professionals have to think first before they can write. So, everyone should follow or understand the first rule.
Getting to the point is also important. Sometimes, writers tend to confuse their readers because they use ideas that are not related to one another just to make their articles long. We should always remember to get to the point so that your readers won’t be confused and understand your article.
Usually, writers, tend to lenghten their articles because they thought that the longer their articles are, the better it is which is wrong. As the second rule says, we should get to the point, because some readers tend to get bored with the writing and also, they are not getting the real essence of the writing if its too long. Also, shorter articles will help the readers understand more what they are reading.
Marla Villa is just summarising the whole rule. Be blunt but not to the extent that you will bore your readers with all the straight forwardness never looking at more aesthetic aspects of the article your doing.
Get to the point. It is as it is. As i say in the first rule, this is Journalism not creative writing. You should say what you want to say directly.
We tend to go around in circles when we write. And most of the times, readers get confused with all the twisted thoughts we unintentionally write.
According to this rule, we must get to the point when we write. In journalistic writing, we inform people through our write-ups, not entertain them. And I am sure most people like to get information from articles right away. So for us writers, no need to go around the bush, as the others have said.
A journalist informs so we have to be straight to our points. We must be direct in all what we say so that the readers will not be confused.
Don’t ever try to go round and round with your readers or else they would probably just dump you in the trash the next time they buy the magazine. As you win in a bull’s eye, you should always try to get to your readers the messages they need right away.
Leo Amadeus Gerella Ruiz
Rule to prohibits beating around the bush so that readers will not be confused on what the writer is saying. This rule is also related to shortening sentences and paragraphs. Because as one gets to the point, the less words are used.Rule two must always be followed.
I agree with this rule. It saves us from going around the bush and saying useless statements. I also observe some articles in magazines or newspapers that they say a lot then get to the point later on. I think we should state our ideas directly and do not delay the readers to what you want to inform.
Circle is not a good shape in writing. Going around it will either confuse your readers to death or make them throw your work into the trash bin. Going straight to the point means stating the most important details at once so that the readers will know what you are saying right away.
Getting to the point simply means that we should state or express our ideas directly or quickly. We do not have to use many sentences to introduce our topic; we just need to say it right away. Not stating the point right away will just confuse readers of what your work is all about.
Articles that go 'round and 'round are confusing. That is why they are said to go 'round and 'round in the first place. getting straight to the point is similar to grabbing a dog that is chasing its tail, or like putting blinders on a horse's eyes so it will keep trotting forward.
People who tell stories and goes in circles are people who we don't want to speak anymore. It is the same in nonverbal communication. Getting to the point shuns away boredom and keeps everyone interested.
Instead of writing so many sentences just to look your article long, you should go straight to the point. The easier the article is, the faster the readers understand what you want to say. Also, we use and apply this rule to avoid confusion.
Ma Inna Paulina Egamino Palana
IV - Enrico Fermi
Fe-15
Before, I saw a title of an article in the magazine’s table of contents that is very interesting. It is like the article is about some scary story of a girl. Of course, I got eager to find what happened to the girl. But because of long introduction and so much description of the place, what the girl wears, the people she is with and such, I got bored and did not continue reading it. I started not to care about the story and looked for something better. This is what the second rule is all about. Get to the point. It makes readers more eager to read. More unnecessary things make the work boring to read.
Ma Inna Paulina Egamino Palana
IV - Enrico Fermi
Fe-15
Before, I saw a title of an article in the magazine’s table of contents that is very interesting. It is like the article is about some scary story of a girl. Of course, I got eager to find what happened to the girl. But because of long introduction and so much description of the place, what the girl wears, the people she is with and such, I got bored and did not continue reading it. I started not to care about the story and looked for something better. This is what the second rule is all about. Get to the point. It makes readers more eager to read. More unnecessary things make the work boring to read.
In journalistic writings, we must not make articles unnecessarily long. Prolonging these would only cause the reader to become confused of what we are talking about. It is important that we convey what we want to say directly so that readers could immediately get the idea.
I belive this is essential in writing because having an article that keeps going around in circles is quite annoying for the reader. Who would want to read something that only makes you confused right? So if you're trying to make a point, it is enough to give an interesting introduction then get to the point at once.Don't go hitting around the bush
Articles that go around the bush is really confusing. We should get to our point right away to avoid confusion among our readers. We will also save time and ink when we do this. We should not include things that re of less importance because it will just lengthen your work.
Adding to what Inna just assumed, I believe that by having a direct attack on the issue will bring you and your reader closer as he/she understands the main topic. Beating around the bush will just make them confused and scared to develop that sense alertness to the main topic.
I would like to apply here something I learned in Math: "The fastest way from two points is a line" So if you want to convey your message in a quick and efficient way, do it in a straight-forward approach. It'll be better for you and your reader.
I agree to this rule because through this, we can directly tell our main idea to the readers. If we won't get to the point, readers will be confused about the real topic. Ideas will only be mixed up.
Nobody would want to read an article that is too long because of unnecessary ideas that are almost not related to what you're really saying. Getting to the point makes the article short yet concise. I think these two qualities are enough to be the basis of a good article.
Journalistic writers aim to inform what happened in a situation that the readers may know. You don't have to put everything that comes from your mind in your paper. Your reader might understand a different idea or sometimes it it will lead them to the world of confusion.
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