10 Getting the words right is half the battle

Readers, it’s as simple as this: News professionals must use language correctly.

News organizations have emphasized, mastered and evolved language for generations. It’s even more critical now in an age when a person on a couch in pajamas can post random thoughts to a blog and claim to be a journalist. (That person could be a journalist but probably isn’t.)

Style, sentence mechanics and proper grammar were once primarily policed by editors and producers. Reporters could be lax about those details because someone else had the job of fixing them. As editor and producer jobs have dwindled, more of the onus for correcting language has fallen on reporters themselves. There are still jobs for editors and producers, but reporters are more likely to post and upload their own work. So, more than ever, they need to know language.

And for those thinking, “I don’t plan to be a reporter,” here’s another incentive: A resume and cover letter also need correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence mechanics. If grammar isn’t your strong suit, here’s some good news: There is a subset of these rules that, if learned and used, can greatly improve your news writing or your resume writing. Or both. They are as follows:

• Writing and speaking in complete sentences.
• Correct use of commas (primarily for writers).
• Sentence agreement (for writers and broadcasters).

There are, of course, many more writing rules. But these three constitute the most common kinds of errors, and students who grasp these three concepts can exponentially improve their sentence mechanics.

Complete Sentences

Writing in complete sentences involves eliminating sentence fragments and run-on sentences. So, it helps to know what those are. Here are definitions and examples.

Fragments

Fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause of the sentence. See the fragment here?

The college offers many majors in engineering. Such as electrical, chemical and industrial engineering.

One of the easiest ways to correct a fragment like this is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause.

The college offers many majors in engineering, such as electrical, chemical and industrial engineering.

As you can see, other kinds of punctuation may be needed for the newly combined sentence. In this case, a comma replaced the period. (More on that in a bit.)

Here’s another example:

Then I attended Morris Middle School. A middle school that was a bad experience.

Here’s a corrected version:

Then I attended Morris Middle School, a middle school that was a bad experience.

Here’s another approach:

Then I attended Morris Middle School. It was a middle school that was a bad experience.

While both of those changes fixed the fragment, an editor might choose to also smooth out and tighten the sentence:

I had a bad experience attending Morris Middle School. 

Run-ons

A run-on is a sentence in which two or more main or independent clauses are joined without a word to connect them or a punctuation mark to separate them.

There are three ways to correct run-on sentences:

• Separate two ideas into two sentences.
• Use coordinating or subordinating conjunctions.
• Use punctuation.

Here’s an example:

It was wonderful weather on Monday the boy flew the kite outside.

Here’s the same sentence, corrected with punctuation:

It was wonderful weather on Monday. The boy flew the kite outside.

Here it’s been corrected with a coordinating conjunction:

There was wonderful weather on Monday, so the boy flew the kite outside.

Corrected again, this time with a subordinating conjunction:

Because there was wonderful weather on Monday, the boy flew the kite outside.

Here’s another run-on sentence:

The book was very interesting the main character died in the last scene.

This sentence can also be corrected with punctuation other than a period:

The book was very interesting; the main character died in the last scene.

Here’s yet another punctuation correction:

The book was very interesting — the main character died in the last scene.

Those examples show several ways writers and editors can fix run-on sentences. Here’s the main takeaway: A period, semicolon or dash will all fix a run-on sentence. Writers and editors might choose them for different reasons. A dash is the most dramatic of the three. A semicolon is the most subtle. So, choose wisely.

And remember, while all three of those will fix run-on sentences, a comma will not. A comma placed between two independent clauses is sometimes called a comma splice. And that’s just another name for a run-on sentence.

Three Key Comma Rules

There are lots of rules about commas. One editing textbook lists 15 of them. That doesn’t include rules about when NOT to use commas. It’s no wonder writers sometimes just throw their hands up in frustration. “Too many rules. I give up!”

So, let’s simplify things. Some of those rules come into play more often than others. By focusing on three of the most common rules, writers, editors and producers can eliminate a huge majority of their punctuation errors.

Key comma rule No. 1

The first one was illustrated in the previous section of this chapter about sentence fragments and run-on sentences. So, this rule relates to commas and conjunctions. There are several parts to this rule.

1. 1. Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction that joins independent clauses.

She looks very young, but she is already in her 30s.

2. A comma is not used before a coordinating conjunction when the conjunction joins an independent and dependent clause.

Tommy loves cookies but hates me.

In case you need a reminder, coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases and clauses to create compound sentences. There are seven coordinating conjunctions:

And, but, for, nor, or, so and yet

Once upon a time, you might have learned this mnemonic for coordinating conjunctions:

F = for

A = and

N = nor

B = but

O = or

Y = yet

S = so

Does that sound familiar? Students sometimes learn this mnemonic and later forget it. The reason may be because they don’t find a practical use for it. Here’s some punctuation news you can use: Remembering FANBOYS will guide your correct use of commas in many cases.

3. The third part of this comma rule is, no comma is needed if a subordinating conjunction joins clauses. It doesn’t matter if the clauses are independent or dependent.

Easy enough. But what are subordinating conjunctions? Subordinate conjunctions join independent clauses to make complex sentences. They are

After, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, if only, rather than, since, that, though, unless, until, when, where, whereas, wherever, whether, which and while

Wait till you hear the mnemonic for this one. . . . Just kidding. There’s not one. It’s simpler than that. If the conjunction isn’t one of the FANBOYS, then it’s a subordinating conjunction. Subordinating conjunction = no comma needed.

Key comma rule No. 2

This one has just one part: Place a comma after an introductory clause, phrase or word that comes before a main clause. For example:

If it’s unclear whether or not a word or phrase is introductory, here’s a test. Rewrite the sentence. (Doing it in your head is fine.) What’s introductory at the beginning of a sentence often is not when moved to the end or elsewhere.

Riz realized he had missed his first class when he woke up.

Riz was late to school often.

Rewritten, these sentences don’t have introductory words or phrases. So, no comma needed.

Key comma rule No. 3

1. Use one or two commas to set off clauses, phrases and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence.

By setting off these words and in some cases phrases and clauses with commas, we’re identifying them as nonessential. That means, there is no confusion about who or what they refer to, whether named or not. Riz has one journalism professor who assigned two papers this week. Only one movie won the 2021 Academy Award for best picture. The reader might not know these names, but they’re nonessential because there’s no one or nothing else they could be.

2. Do not use commas to set off essential elements in a sentence.

These phrases, one describing certain doctors and the other a particular student, are essential because the precise meaning of the sentences aren’t conveyed without them. For example, if your professor stopped in the middle of class and announced, “The student is acting strangely,” you might have a hard time knowing which student she was talking about without the added description about the sweatshirt. “What students? There are lots of them in our class,” you might think to yourself.

If you wrote that sentence, the reader certainly couldn’t know who you were referring to. But with the essential phrase “wearing the Supreme sweatshirt,” the reader can know which specific student is acting strangely.

Making Sentences Agree

The final grammatical rule that can improve reporting, writing and editing is sentence agreement. The basic principle of agreement is, a pronoun usually refers to something earlier in the text—its antecedent—and must agree with the thing to which it refers.

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in three ways:

• Person, which refers to the quality of being.
• Number, which is the quality that distinguishes between singular (one entity) and plural (numerous entities).
• Gender, which is the quality that distinguishes the entities as masculine or feminine.

1. Person agreement simply refers to first, second and third person. So, if the antecedent is written in third person—which is the most common person used in journalistic writing—the pronoun should be as well. Here’s an example of a sentence that doesn’t agree:

If a person wants to succeed in journalism, you have to work well under pressure.

The example sentence lacks person agreement because:

• The antecedent, a person, is in third person.
• The pronoun that follows it, you, is in second person.

In second person, the corrected sentence would be

If you want to succeed in journalism, you have to work well under pressure.

But since reporters usually speak and write in third person, a better option might read like this:

If a person wants to succeed in journalism, he or she has to work well under pressure.

For those writers who don’t like he or she because it’s clunky or doesn’t include all people, it would be preferable to change the sentence to this:

If people want to succeed in journalism, they have to work well under pressure.

2. Number agreement is the quality that distinguishes between singular (one entity) and plural (numerous entities).

Here are pronouns that are always singular. These might surprise you:

• anyone
• anybody
• everyone
• everybody
• someone
• somebody
• no one
• nobody

If anyone wants to succeed in journalism, he or she has to work well under pressure.

Some singular antecedents are obvious, such as she. But some singular antecedents trip reporters up. The tricky ones include someone, the phrase “the number,” definable amounts of money, feet, yards, miles and diseases.

The number of students studying journalism is 75.

Tricky antecedents that are always plural include the phrase “a number” as well as Latin plurals such as media, vertebrae, phenomena, criteria, alumni, axes, crises, hippopotami, fungi, curricula, etc.

A number of students are studying journalism.

3. Gender agreement is the quality that distinguishes entities as masculine or feminine.

If a person wants to succeed in journalism, he or she has to work well under pressure.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when this sentence would have been acceptably written as, If a person wants to succeed in journalism, he has to work well under pressure. Male pronouns were the de facto standard even though they didn’t truly agree. Using he or she was an attempt to be more inclusive and to create gender agreement. Once again, some people find he or she clunky or not as inclusive as it could be. If so, the solution is to change the antecedent to something that removes gender from the sentence. For example (note the verb tense changes):

If people want to succeed in journalism, they have to work well under pressure.

Tricky Cases

Then there are some special cases that have their own rules. With an either or/neither nor sentence, here’s the rule: When the subject closest to the verb is singular, use a singular verb. If the subject closest to the verb is plural, use a plural verb.

Neither the researcher nor her assistants were available for comment.

When the antecedent is a fraction or percent, the pronoun will match (in number) the word after “of.”

Twenty-five percent of the pies lost their flavor.

In other tricky cases, phrases such as along with, as well as or one of those merely modify the real subject. They don’t turn the subject into a compound or plural construction.

Uniforms, as well as cleats, gloves and helmets, are purchased each season.