Tips for better writing

by Ted Mallory
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper Thurs. Sept. 30, 2004

Let’s face it, one of the things we’d all like to see in the media is a little more self-criticism. People just don’t trust the press anymore and with good reason. On the Republican bad list, no doubt is Dan Rather at for the flap about memos alleging that President Bush was A.W.O.L. when he should’ve been reporting to National Guard duty.

Democrats still want to know why CNN commentator Robert Novak released the name of a CIA operative who’s the wife of former acting U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Joseph Wilson. We’d also like to know what White House official illegally leaked her name to him.

Journalists make mistakes. Sometimes they’re perfectly honest mistakes, but obviously they’re sometimes mistakes that are made “accidentally-on-purpose.” It would help the media’s credibility a lot if they would do some self-examination and self-policing. People would trust them a lot more if they’d admit when they were wrong and try to make amends for their mistakes.

I’d like to volunteer to set an example. Not that Dan Rather or Robert Novak read my column, but I figure I at least owe it to you my readers. Here are some textbook tips for writing Editorials and Opinion pieces and my personal appraisal of how well or poor I’m doing at following them:

Be Brief & Concise- I’m working on it. The Des Moines Register suggests that letters to the Editor be no more than 600 words. Too often I go almost double that. You don’t have to write much more than 50 words if you can get your point across.

Come to the Point Quickly- I spend way to much time prefacing whatever I want to say. For example, last week, before I got into criticizing Governor Vilsack’s education policies, I spent a couple paragraphs apologizing for Bush bashing so much the week before.

Be Sincere- You have to give me this one. You may disagree with me on lots of things I write about, but at least I know what I believe and I’m not afraid to say so.

Don’t take yourself too seriously- I hope that I’ve been humble and self-effacing enough that you know I’m sincere and try to be honest.

Don’t preach- persuade- This has to be the biggest problem I’ve had and I want to take an opportunity to apologize if you feel like I’ve ever done this. Preaching is when you talk down to people as if you know better than they do. Persuading is when you set the facts before someone, tell them why you feel a certain way and encourage them to agree with you. If I had been smart, I would have been trying to persuade you not to vote to re-elect Bush (a $7 Trillion debt and a $445 billion deficit are two good reasons) . Instead, I let my frustration and irritation get the best of me and just used this column to vent and rant. Please forgive me.

Avoid all gossip or hearsay- Here is the biggest mistake I made in my column two weeks ago about President Bush’s history of cocaine use and National Guard duty. Second hand information. Of course, the person who determined that Dan Rather’s memos were forgeries wasn’t an expert in typography, he’s a Republican activist who runs a conservative website. And both Bush’s C.O. and his secretary both have said that basically the content of the allegedly forged memos was pretty much true anyway. Be that as it may, I didn’t call the Texas, Alabama and Florida National Guards, I went by what Dan Rather did and look what it got me? Egg on my face.

Admit errors- don’t be afraid to change positions- I still don’t trust the President any more than Rush Limbaugh trusts Dan Rather, but I was a hypocrite. I’ve preached against mud slinging and character assassination- “the politics of destruction,” but I stooped to making accusations about a candidate’s face, instead of sticking to current, relative issues. That was wrong, I admit it. I was so angry about how Bush supporters tried to smear Kerry’s record, that I jumped on the band-wagon with everyone who wanted to return fire.

Of course, while I’m sincere enough to admit it was cheap, I’d be an even bigger hypocrite and a real liar if I promised it will never happen again.

A little humor never hurt anyone- I know I’m no Mark Twain, heck I’m no Dave Berry, but I know that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Some people would rather I not even write about politics. For some, that may be because politics can be boring, so I try to slip a little wit in here when I can.

Sometimes it’s hard to top reality, though. Sen. John McCain recently took some time off of campaigning for Bush to criticize the way he’s handled the reconstruction effort in Iraq, I at least find that mildly amusing. Then Pat “Mr. Conservative” Buchanan criticized Bush for even invading Iraq, and the aftermath, and his run-away deficits. Buchanan thinks that there’s nothing “conservative” about the Bush administration. Soon after McCain criticized the Bush campaign for not criticizing Buchanan for criticizing Bush. Did you follow that? It makes my head spin.

Some people are sick of the election and mud slinging and character assassination. We have to put up with enough of it on TV and there’s a whole ‘nother six weeks of it to go (unless, God forbid, it’s as tight as it was last time and goes to the courts again). If you’re one of those folks, I sincerely apologize. My hope is to write something that will entice people to read the NEWSpaper and make it unique among small town newspapers. The last thing I’d want to do is to make it just like everything you have to put up with in the mainstream media or to write anything that you won’t want to read. I’ll try to write less about politics and be funnier, but I’m not going to PROMISE, I’m too likely to break that promise.

See the thing is, it’s hard to think of something to write about every week that’s funny and not political. I may have to resort to writing about writing, say for instance if I spent a whole column writing about Journalism textbook tips for writing Editorial and Opinion columns. That could become a real drag. Know what I mean?

So much for being brief and concise. Dang, I’ve got to work on that.