How to become a incredible writer E-Book

• Herausgeber: Digital World
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 136

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Is it possible to write well? Writing is in fashion. New communication technologies, who would have thought, have resurrected the value of writing. Letters are no longer written as they used to be, but rather concise electronic messages. Long and complex reports are not permitted. Time is money. Reports must be objective and incisive. What about entrance exams? Students do not enter college if they fail the essay. Writing has never been needed more than now. Teaching writing is a task for teachers. Journalists can contribute to improving the technique of younger reporters. Press professionals are forged in practice. They work with the experience acquired over the years of activity. This book aims to help students write well. We are clear about the limitations of the challenge. To write... What will you find in "How to Write Well"? Strategies for clear and objective writing: Learn to eliminate superfluity and communicate your ideas in a direct and impactful way. Techniques to keep the reader's attention: Discover how to create engaging texts that keep the reader interested from start to finish. Grammar and style tips: Improve the accuracy and elegance of your writing with expert advice. Practical examples and exercises: Put into practice what you learn with real examples and challenging exercises. Inspiration and motivation: Find the inspiration you need to overcome writer's block and develop a unique voice in your writing.

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ISBN: 978-65-35233-32-8

DISCLAIMER: This book is protected by international copyright law and may not be copied, reproduced, given away, or used to create derivative works without the express permission of the publisher. The publisher retains all copyrights to this book.

The author has made every reasonable effort to be as accurate and complete as possible in creating this book and to ensure that the information provided is free from errors; however, the author/publisher/dealer assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or irregular interpretation of the subject matter herein and does not guarantee or represent at any time that the contents are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.

Any perceived slights of specific people, peoples or organizations are unintentional.

The purpose of this book is to educate and there are no guarantees of income, sales or results implied. The publisher/author/dealer cannot therefore be held responsible for any unsatisfactory results you may obtain when implementing the techniques or following any guidelines set out for you in this book.

Presentation

It is possible to write well

Writing is in fashion. New communication technologies, who would have thought, have resurrected the value of writing. Letters are no longer written as they used to be, but rather concise electronic messages. Long and complex reports are no longer acceptable. Time is money. Reports must be objective and incisive. What about entrance exams? Students do not enter college if they fail the essay. Writing has never been needed more than now.

Teaching writing is a task for teachers. Journalists can contribute to improving the technique of younger reporters. Press professionals are forged in practice. They work with the experience acquired over the years of activity. Generations of them were raised in the shouting of newsrooms and public humiliation when their stories were thrown in the trash can.

Help is worth more than shouting. This book aims to help students write well. We are clear about the limitations of the challenge. Writing is a complex activity, the result of good literacy, reading habits, intellectual training, access to good sources of information and lots and lots of practice. Besides, of course, something that comes from God or DNA, who knows? – individual talent.

We don't have the power to distribute talent. Our role is to contribute to fulfilling the other requirements – those that depend on the personal effort and persistence of those interested in developing the ability to transform objectives into texts. Here are basic guidelines for managing the language used in the press. Readers may not become new Machados de Assis, but they will face the challenge of writing more prepared. Geniuses, talented by nature, don't need us. On the contrary. They teach us.

Mining the obvious

Academic literature is short and thick in the chapter where it teaches how to write a journalistic text. The text, theorists preach, must begin by answering, right away, six fundamental questions:

What?

Who?

When?

Where?

As?

Why?

And isn't that the case? In newspapers, radio, television and the brand new internet, news is presented in this format. When Willian Bonner opens Jornal Nacional saying “a bomb exploded in Chechnya killing the president of the province and 31 people”, he uses the simplest and most direct structure of journalism.

This is an easy-to-recognize formula. It is everywhere and serves as a skeleton, for example, for announcements of seventh-day masses:

Family members invite people to the mass on the seventh day of the death of so-and-so to be held on such-and-such day, such-and-such church and such-and-such time.

Or to pack news of crimes and accidents:

A drunk driver crashed head-on into another vehicle on Avenida Tal last night, killing all four occupants. Among them was a six-month-old child.

Easy? It is not. The biggest difficulty for reporters and editors is finding the right answers to the six naughty questions. They get lost in the tangle of data brought in from the street. They feel unable to say what happened. Entangled by sometimes conflicting information, they are unable to recognize the most important facts.

Answering the six basic questions is a mining exercise. Hidden beneath tons of secondary data, covered by mountains of unnecessary detail, and disguised under a thin layer of sophisticated observations, lies the glittering diamond of the obvious. Yes, unfortunately, nothing is more difficult for a reporter than identifying the obviousness of a piece of news.

After all, what are the six crucial questions if not the recognition of obviousness in any event? Pay attention to everyday conversations, especially those without great intellectual pretensions, with friends, husband, wife and children about everyday events.

You start a chat with a friend. He says he's dating. What is the first question the other person will ask you? Obvious: who? As you answer, other questions will come: what is he (the boyfriend) like? How did you meet him? Where did they meet? How did you decide to date? Without realizing it, you are following the content and structure necessary to create a short report. Journalism theorists summarized the dynamics of our conversations.

The art of thinking

The recipe for writing journalistic text works well because it teaches you to think. Anyone who has spent hours in front of a blank computer screen unsure of where to start knows what anguish is. Older people must remember the pages ripped out of typing machines when torture took place. The paper thrown in the trash can had the advantage of materializing the weight of torment in the lives of the candidates for Machado de Assis, Elio Gaspari or Roberto Pompeu de Toledo. With the computer, there are no visible signs of suffering, but it continues, firm and strong.

So much pain has a cause. The text comes into existence long before it takes shape on the screen. It is born, first, in the author's head. The ability to write is the result of the ability to think – to think in an orderly, logical and practical way. Without this exercise, there is no way to fill the tenebrous white screen.

So, spend time thinking about what you want to write and, only then, with a script in hand, sit down in front of the traumatic computer. It will become what it is – a valuable work tool. The source from which ideas, intelligent phrases and consistent concepts will emerge is in the brain. The machine does not replace man's greatest and most fascinating talent, the ability to think. Thank God.

Draw up a flight plan. As? Next, we will give you a roadmap. The rules do not guarantee the awakening of geniuses, but they offer a safe way to arrive at informative, succinct and direct text, fundamental characteristics in the journalistic style.

Summarize the story like you do when a friend asks you about the party he didn't attend. You probably say: “The party was lively, full of beautiful people. The music was great and the food was fabulous.” Okay, here's the summary of your story. Don't lose sight of him. Your goal will be to tell the narrative in detail.

Answer the six questions listed at the beginning of this chapter in the order in which they were presented. The first is what? The last, and most difficult, is why? Answers should not exceed two lines. Never, ever, at any time can they be longer than two lines. Even be greedy. Write even less.

Clean up the text. In journalistic jargon, drying means reducing, cutting, sending unnecessary words and information to the cucuias. Start now. Did you ignore the guidance to restrict yourself to two lines? Use the scissors without mercy or mercy.

Read and re-read the text. Take the opportunity to check the information. Are people’s names, positions and titles correct? It may seem silly, but nothing irritates readers and discredits information more than seeing names published with the wrong spelling. The recommendation applies to other details such as the location of a city, distances, number of laws.

If in doubt, look for confirmation in dictionaries, maps, reference books and telephone directories. If necessary, call the sources of the story again. Do not be shy. Say that you're not sure about an item and wouldn't want to post it in the wrong way. Serious sources will thank you for your care. Readers too.

Divide the text into parts (branches). Each one addresses a theme relating to the main story and, of course, must have its own planning. One, for example, might describe the mansion where the party took place. Another, to highlight the French cook specially hired for the event.

The inverted pyramid

The question and answer model in the construction of the text follows the classic structure of news presentation – the inverted pyramid. The technique debuted in 1861 in The New York Times , as a way of giving objectivity to the reporting of an event. It consists of putting the most important information in the first paragraph, answering “what? who? when? where? as? why?".

In that order, the essential details appear first. In practice, the story is told from the end to the beginning, hence the name inverted pyramid. In the last two decades, there have been attempts to change traditional texts, forced by the phenomenon of audiovisual news and the internet. Digital outlets, which are faster, disseminate news in real time, compromising the role of print outlets.

In the past, besides radio, newspapers were the only sources of information available. Today, this is not the case, but they continue to be produced as if they were. A copy from today with only yesterday's news arrives on newsstands out of date. The reader was bombarded by information from radio and TV. Many followed the news on the internet.

Take the increase in fuel prices as an example. Four national newspapers published the news on Tuesday – the fact made headlines in all of them – but the announcement was made the day before. The state-owned company's decision, therefore, was in the air on Monday itself, through online news. line , television and radio. More attentive drivers had time to top up their car's tank to escape the readjustment. The newspapers ignored this reality and treated the adjustment as big news. Was not. It was a subject of widespread knowledge.

See the examples:

The first price increase for gasoline and diesel oil under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government came into force today. After a year and a half without an increase – in April last year there was a drop – the price of gasoline sold by Petrobras in its refineries rose by 10.8% and that of diesel, by 10.6%, without taking taxes into account. According to the president of Petrobras, José Eduardo Dutra, the average increase for consumers should be around 4.5%, in the case of gasoline, and 6.4% for diesel oil, if no sector in the chain increases also your profit margins. (The globe)

Petrobras could not resist the pressure and announced yesterday the adjustment in fuel prices at refineries. Gasoline increases 10.8% and diesel oil, 10.6%. The president of the state-owned company, José Eduardo Dutra, explained that the stabilization of the international oil price above US$35 per barrel made maintaining prices unsustainable. For the consumer, according to the company's calculations, the increase should reach 4.5% in the case of gasoline and 6.4% in the case of diesel. The increase is valid from today. (The State of S. Paulo)

Petrobras announced yesterday the first increase in fuel prices under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government: gasoline in the state-owned refineries became 10.8% more expensive as of midnight today. Diesel rose 10.6%. The company calculates that the impact on the consumer will be lower due to tax issues and, in the case of gasoline, the mixture with alcohol (25%). Petrobras' forecast is that gasoline will rise 4.5% at gas station pumps and diesel, 6.4%, if distributors' profit margins are maintained. (Folha de S. Paulo)

Petrobras announced yesterday the adjustment of gasoline and diesel prices at refineries, starting at midnight today, by 10.8% and 10.6%, respectively. Stations are expected to pass on to consumers an increase of 4.5% to 5% in gasoline and 6.5% in diesel, according to estimates by the National Fuel Trade Federation ( Fecombustíveis ). (Brazilian newspaper)

With minor changes, the materials are almost identical. They follow the model for answering the journalist's six basic questions – what, who, when, where, how and why – which supports the inverted pyramid. Conclusion: despite resistance from many professionals, the established format prevails in newsrooms.

In the book The art of making a daily newspaper , the Pernambuco journalist based in Brasília Ricardo Noblat abhors purely factual material. “Please don’t tell me what I already know,” he says. “I'll read what I already know if you add information that I don't know or if you explain to me what I didn't quite understand. I might as well read about what I already know if you anticipate what’s to come. But only in these cases. Aren't newspaper horoscope sections as successful? How many people don't consult fortune tellers, psychics and all sorts of people who claim to be able to divine the future? I don't believe in these types of people. But I believe that everyone's dream is to read tomorrow's newspaper today. And I believe in the possibility of competent professionals anticipating facts.”

Noblat has been an ardent supporter of a new model of daily journalism capable of going beyond the presentation of yesterday's events. But he also suffered from newsrooms' fear of investing in exclusive stories and, in doing so, compromising the daily coverage that readers are accustomed to. During the ten years in which he ran Correio Braziliense , following the model of journalism little given to factual matters, Noblat experienced this contradiction.

He demanded creativity from the team in agenda meetings, but demanded the day's news at closing time. His visits to the newsroom at 8pm, when there is no more time to add anything, have become folkloric. Editors were in a state of alert, tense and unsure about editing. What they feared most was hearing Noblat shout:

– Do we have this?

This was an event of the day that he had read in newspaper editions on the internet or heard about in Jornal Nacional . If it didn't, the editor would try to get it. And more. And better, with graphic resources, articles, interpretations and analyses. At 8pm! The scene was so common that a group of good-natured reporters from the Cities editorship created a music band called Do we have this?

The new journalism

The challenge to the inverted pyramid model is not new. In the 1960s, journalists such as Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Gay Talese and Norman Mailler innovated. They abandoned the classic factual text structure, adding literary elements. They created the New Journalism. One of the best-known texts from this period is In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote. It tells the story of the murder of a Kansas farm family that took place in 1959. Capote investigated the story for an article in The New Yorker , but the work was turned into a novel. It was published in chapters, became a book and a movie.

New Journalism also arrived in Brazil in the 1960s. Jornal da Tarde and Realidade magazine , launched during this period in São Paulo, arrived on the market with a new look. The phenomenon did not last long, but there are still those who complain about missing those good old reports. The truth is that, centuries and much theoretical discussion later, the inverted pyramid remains in the press. It is still the most used writing technique in the media.

The journalistic text

Is there journalistic text? Exist. It fits into professional writing. It is meant to be read, understood and, if possible, appreciated. The journalist, like the businessman, the lawyer, the economist, writes with an eye on the recipient. And therein lies the difference.

The lawyer, the economist and the businessman write for a known audience. The lawyer's petition is addressed to the judge. The economist's analysis, for economists. The director's report to the company president. The newspaper's article, to the newspaper's readers.