February 2012
4 posts
Editing notes: make it, don't take it
1. You make the call, you don’t take the call, unless you mean you’re taking a telephone call.
2. Common India construction: “…to explain large number of flight cancellations since Saturday.” It should be: “…to explain the large number of flight cancellations since Saturday.”
Indianisms begin at home
I’m picking on the home team, which I understand is not politic.
REUTERS - The government is investigating whether the Indian units of U.S. Internet giants Google Inc(GOOG.O) and Yahoo IncYHOO.N may have violated the country’s foreign exchange laws, the Wall Street Journal said in report.
Open letter to the editor of the Times of India
Sir/Madam: I write with regard to the article “Noida: Standing Tall,” under the section “Realty Matters,” appearing in the Financial Times, New Delhi, edition of Thursday, February 2, 2012. The newspaper identifies the author as “A Correspondent,” which is the name I would have used had an editor forced me to write an article that violates the basic standards of...
January 2012
6 posts
Indianisms: why I write about them
Entering a country of which you are not a citizen and criticizing its journalism is an act that without context appears at best helpful, but misguided, and at worst a rude gesture toward the nation that hosts you. I understand that. And yet, I do it anyway. I find it useful to explain what I’m doing and what I’m not doing.
- I have always maintained that Indian English, which contains...
Indianisms: Selections from the Times of India
This is another in a series of posts in which I identify “Indianisms,” which I define as:
Writing in contemporary Indian mainstream journalism that, whether it is invented in India or inherited from the British, that we should avoid when writing for an international audience.
Today’s examples come from the Times of India, which my hotel here in Bangalore delivers each morning.
...
Editing other people's news: Hindustan Times
Criticising Bharatiya Janata Party’s star campaigner Uma Bharti during his poll campaign in Bundelkhand’s Charkhari constituency (who is “his”? Isn’t Uma Bharti a woman?), Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi (Oh, “his” refers to Gandhi!) on Thursday said that the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister had never done (never did) anything to develop the...
Indianisms: Missing the the and the a and the an
Times of India: “Mumbai police fined Parmeshwar Godrej for “playing music beyond permissible time limit” at party hosted for talk show queen Oprah Winfrey on Monday night.”
That should be “beyond the permissible time limit” and it should be “at a party.”
The North Korea AP bureau press release is...
Fascinating reading. I normally would say no such thing about a press release.
Jan. 16, 2012
AP opens first full-time, all-format news bureau in North Korea
The Associated Press on Monday formally opened a news bureau in Pyongyang, becoming the first news organization to operate a text and photo bureau with full-time staff in North Korea.
Working with its video newsgathering arm, London-based...
Indianisms: to do the needful
After reading Anurag Mathur, I thought “doing the needful” was a naughty synonym for peeing… or even more substantial activities. I’ve since discovered that asking someone to do the needful is a fairly common expression. I herewith ban it.
December 2011
10 posts
Beasts of the Field: The Kraymonck (rough)
Just let your tears run wild, whispers the Kraymonck. It is not your emotion; it is a mote, buried in the strands of your clothes. It has seventeen legs, the last, odd one of which, once buried in your epidermis, brings on the tears of boozy despair that make us recall lost days and loves never attained. This “nostalgic leg” is little known in many parts of the world, but in rural...
Beasts of the Field: The Isliyey (rough)
I recently had the opportunity, on a humid afternoon in Pondicherry, the former French colony on the Bay of Bengal in India, to learn from a dear Tamil friend to learn about the Isliyey, a beast that resembles the hippopotamus, but is smaller than a housecat. The Tamils call it the “Ottatappillamitattam,” and in their coffee houses rebel against the Urdu word, “Isliyey,”...
Beasts of the Field: The Drake (rough)
The Drake derives its name from the Yakuts, in whose oral traditions the name first was spoken at the time of the effective, if undistinguished, younger sound of Genghis Khan. Safe from the Mongol Horde’s predations in the tundra between China and the Eskimos, the Yakut began their long exit from relevance in the history of the world.
A Turkic people, they sacrificed their dreams to the...
Beasts of the Field: The Amorbus (rough)
The Amorbus is the most dangerous of all the beasts of the field. Aristotle first observed them in a work long believed to be thought lost, then considered apocryphal. His “Book XXXIV of Irregular Quadratics.”
In it, he wrote of the keepers of Khazar wheat fields, which resemble our modern Ugli Fruit. The Amorbus, as Tacitus later named them on his third Rhine expedition, had a rough,...
Writing projects: pardon my construction
You might see some oddball posts in the coming weeks and months, more oddball than the recent ones, that is. I am testing some ideas for a fiction project, among them a modern-day bestiary inspired by Stanley Bing’s Bingsop’s Fables and Jose Luis Borges’s The Book of Imaginary Beings, not to mention a million other bestiaries from the literature of two thousand years.
I plan to...
Indianisms: to revert
Someone told me today, in response to a request that I made, that he would revert to me within a few hours. I wondered if he planned to revert to being a child, a werewolf, a goldfish or something else all together more fascinating.
I’ll ask you instead of looking it up. Is this a British English use of the verb “to revert?” Or is this a use that’s unique to India?...
Free books -- for you
I must unload some books. I have too many. Some are hard to part with, others not. They are free because I’d like to share books with you. If you see one you like, we’ll figure out how to get it to you.
The Greatest Trade Ever:The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History. Wall Street Journal’s Greg Zuckerman reports on the filthy...
On writing: Jargon in business news
My friend and colleague wrote this when he was editing financial news in Mumbai for Reuters. He was on to something long before I was thinking about it in any organized way. Most of our stories are read by experts and people who know as much, if not more, about a subject than we do. This means that in theory, we could use jargon and be understood by many, if not all, of the people who read them....
The semi-informed editor files: asset-backed...
I’m going through a list of financial terms, press release jargon and other terms that I’ve spotted too often in news writing. The intent is to write a Devil’s Dictionary of such terms. Today, I’m writing about asset-backed commercial paper, a kind of debt that I would be lying to you if I said I thoroughly understood it. I’d fill my post with rage, snark and clumsy...
November 2011
4 posts
"A Vise of Consent," or "How the Sausage Gets...
I was thinking about how many news articles about Capitol Hill and the legislative process rely on cliches. Then I was thinking about “Advise and Consent,” the Allen Drury novel about the Hill that Otto Preminger then made for the screen. Then I was thinking about breakfast.
Mom was in the kitchen in early September, setting places for the four of us. She was hoping that a quorum...
Is it ironic? From the flack files...
Here is an excerpt of an email I received on Wednesday:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 16, 2011
Contact: Jack Myers
jm@xxxxxxx.com
xxx-xxx-xxxx
A new study among 1,000 college-aged students (17-21) conducted by Jack Myers Media Business Report found that “Internet Natives” are actively socializing online while they are watching television.
The press release, with an invitation...
Felix: Here’s why I’m so angry at Julie Moos’s... →
felixsalmon:
Here’s why I’m so angry at Julie Moos’s unjustifiable attack on Jim Romenesko: the way that she’s so fucking certain that she’s right and he’s wrong, and the way that she hammers this home over and over again:
I now know that Jim Romenesko’s posts exhibit a pattern of incomplete attribution…
How do I comment on people's Tumblr posts?
I’m not smart about these things, so I must ask for help.
UPDATE: Maybe it’s that some people allow comments and other people don’t. I just commented on someone’s post, but it’s the only time I’ve been able to find a way to do it.
September 2011
5 posts
When can you drop "had" in past-tense sentences?
There is no firm rule, but the answer in news writing usually is, “often.”
Here is an example in which the answer is, “always.”
A shipping worker from Freeport’s Papua port said loading activities had eased as some of contract workers at the port had left. It was not immediately clear why they had left the area.
If these were conditional sentences,...
What does this mean?
Bartok's Quartet for Piano, Celesta and Two...
Here is an excerpt from one of our stories that we published on Wednesday:
Singapore’s financial regulator on Wednesady dismissed talk that tough, new rules for derivative markets in America and Europe will cause trade in over-the-counter (OTC) financial instruments to shift to Asia.
1. I don’t know what over-the-counter refers to, but that’s probably my fault.
2. I...
Is that a tranche in your pocket, or are you just...
Headline: Greece will receive aid tranche on time - finmin
First paragraph: A team of inspectors from Greece’s lenders will return to Athens this week and the country will receive the 8-billion-euro ($11 billion) aid tranche it needs to avoid bankruptcy next month, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Tuesday.
Thoughts on translation —
Tranche: French students will know this...
Headline analysis: Chevron sees no cost increase...
Sometimes you don’t want people to read your news articles, so you give them headlines like this: Chevron sees no cost increase at $37 bln Gorgon LNG.
Let’s translate:
Chevron = Chevron, a great big oil and gas company. Understand that the article does not define what Chevron makes for a living.
Sees = That’s a word that business news services use in headlines instead of...
August 2011
1 post
Baked Flack
My response to this public relations pitch tells the whole story:
Leslie, You and I corresponded about this last week after you sent me a copy of the very same email that appeared in my email in box today. I said I wasn’t interested. I also asked that you not send me any more emails.
Thanks,
Robert
——-Original Message——- From: Leslie Norden...
July 2011
23 posts
Comcast customer service: all's well that ends...
Someone found my transcript of a frustrating online chat with a Comcast cable TV customer helper and posted it on the Consumerist website. That post received some comments that suggested that I was a “boob” and a “douche.” I’m sure that you can find people close to me who would agree and disagree.
The people who called me such names seemed to think that I bullied the...
Psychic housewife. Yeah, baby.
My colleague got this pitch today.
Announcing the mystically entertaining new documentary special “Psychic in Suburbia,” airing Saturday, July 30 at 9p ET/PT on The Style Network staring Maureen Hancock. http://www.mystyle.com/mystyle/shows/styleexposed/
“Psychic in Suburbia” follows the out-of-this-world life of Maureen Hancock – a loving wife, devoted mom and Boston-area...
Sorry about the post profusion
I was moving my writing posts from my Reuters blog to this blog. I should have done that over days rather than minutes.
2 tags
On writing: Strangling the 'growing chorus' 'eyed'...
You often can’t get through a day of reading business news without coming across the convenient, but repulsive phrases, “a growing chorus,” and “all eyes are on,” or some variation. Usually, there is a growing chorus of support or opposition to something, and all the investors’ eyes are trained on one thing or another.
The Moron Tabernacle Choir performs...
2 tags
On writing: You don't have to write like a...
I’m already trying to edit myself. That headline is off. It should say, “You should not write like a businessperson just because you cover business.”
You often might think to yourself, upon reading my blog posts, “yes, of course, Robert. Tell us something that we don’t know.” But remember this: when you read our stories, you often see a swamp of business ...
2 tags
On writing: Supply chain -- unchained disharmony
What is a supply chain? I read about it every day when I edit stories. It appears to be a global network of companies that build things that go inside the things of other companies, and so on. I can imagine a hypothetical supply chain: someone makes rubber somewhere in Asia, and delivers it wholesale to a company that cuts it up into little pieces. Those little pieces become little pieces in...
2 tags
On writing: 'Oil major' irritates me in a major...
I spy the term “oil major” in our stories more often than I should. In fact, spying it once is spying it too often. Oil majors, judging my searching on the Internet, appear to be the world’s biggest oil companies. Wikipedia says they are BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total SA. Well, Wikipedia says they are “supermajors.” Does that...
2 tags
On writing: Three phrases to avoid when writing...
There surely are more than three phrases that you must avoid when you’re writing stories about things that the U.S. government is doing. Two of them stand out, however. I know them well because I used them many times before realizing that I was doing harm, not good.
Regulatory regime
This is the term that we journalists use to talk about a legal state of affairs. We talk about how...
2 tags
On writing: 'Bolt-on acquisitions' don't 'drive...
Every hack must sling some hash once in a while. Here are my leftovers. Plenty more to come after this.
Sector.” Avoid it. Same with “bolt-on acquisitions.” Don’t write these things. There is never a good time for them.
Avoid this:
Kentz, which bought South African firm RNE Engineering and Projects during the first quarter of 2011, will focus mainly on the oil and gas ...
2 tags
On writing: Tepid demand -- it's too hot, please...
I have come to hate the phrase “tepid demand” in news. It’s not a cliche in the general sense of the English language, though it is one in business journalism. I hate it because we and other news outlets use it all the time.
Bloomberg: Microsoft Corp will stop introducing new versions of the Zune music and video player because of tepid demand…
Dow Jones: Natural-gas...
2 tags
On writing: 'Sluggish' -- pour some salt on this...
“Sluggish” is one of the most common words on our news file. Why? Is there no substitute? Can we stop overworking these exploited slugs before they demand a collective bargaining agreement?
March 15
Borders filed for bankruptcy last month after years of struggling to compete with online book sales and a sluggish response to electronic book readers.
Consumer goods giant Unilever...
2 tags
On writing: Shares surge, shares soar! The...
If you had to divide the cars in this world into two kinds, you might say you have these:
the durable ones that have tough motors, a reliable suspension and absolutely no pretenses toward being pretty
the flashy ones that get the dudes and the chicks all hot (for different reasons, sometimes), but need constant maintenance.
So it goes with the words we use in our stories. In the past few ...
2 tags
On writing: Foray melee -- retreat, regroup,...
Words spread like diseases among journalists. Just before I left for India, my copy editor colleague Steve Orlofsky observed a sudden rise in the use of the cliche, “double-edged sword” in stories arriving at our desk in New York. I said that it seems like certain words and phrases suddenly gain currency, begin showing up with a flare, quickly turn limp and overused, and...
2 tags
On writing: I had written about verbs on Tuesday
The world of the verb in Indo-European languages boasts a vast tracts of probability and possibility, promises of the future and echoes of the past, and nuances of time thanks to a variety of tenses. In some news writing, I watch that world tilt on its axis, weighed down by journalists who overuse the “pluperfect” tense, also known as the “past perfect.”
To my...
2 tags
On writing: Save the 'environment,' spare us the...
When I read the phrase “uncertain regulatory environment” in news articles, I sense that I’m living in a climate of loathing. Read enough news about the government or business, and you will encounter the words “environment” and “experience” as extra nouns, riding behind other, better nouns.
Here is a recent example:
“Company X named Chairman Y as its chief executive officer after asking Z...
2 tags
On writing: What is the enterprise?
I first heard the word “enterprise” as a business and technology term in 1996 when I was working for Business Research Publications, a newsletter publisher, in Washington, D.C.
“Ideal paradigm changing, revolutionary solutions for the enterprise!”
“SAP enterprise applications that drive growth across the supply chain!”
And so on.
I covered Cisco Systems...
2 tags
On writing: 'Recasts' -- Why I hate it
Where I work, we add “trashlines” to our stories when we update them. They tell the reader what is new in the story. They usually say things like, “Adds analyst comment, stock price,” “Adds details from conference call, CEO comment, byline” and so on. They are written inside parentheses, usually one space in from the left margin, not five spaces. They look...
2 tags
On writing: cash-strapped consumers
“Cash-strapped” needs some time to recover from overuse. About 500 years should do it. “Cash-strapped consumers” too.
Why do we like it so much? I’m not sure. I guess:
- We find it hard to say “people who can’t afford as much as they used to,” or “poor people” or “people trying to save money.” Those are lengthy and even awkward, depending on the...
2 tags
On writing: I reckon I aim to tell you it is set...
I don’t “aim to” do things in my stories. When I was growing up, the people who said they “aim to” do things invariably were born and raised in the South. It might come naturally to Texans and Floridians, but in all uses in our stories, it sounds like rednecks or cowboys talking. I remember water-skiing (badly) in DeLeon Springs off the St John’s River in Florida when I was 14. Karen,...
2 tags
On writing: You're an American. You're not 'keen'...
In our stories, we often say that people or companies are “keen on” something or “keen to” do something. Most American readers know what that means, and most non-British speakers understand it too. Nevertheless, it is odd when stories written and published in the United States feature British English phrases that involve “keen.”
I suspect that our reporters and editors adopt this word into...