This is the style guide I crafted for the reporters of my newspaper, Malaya Business Insight. It was approved by the Executive Editor. I hope it will help the current and future reporters in writing their stories and the editors in minimizing errors.
Lead
According to our late editor in chief, Joy delos Reyes, most leads follow a single formula: Who said what, when, where and why. The how could be included in the next paragraph if they could not be accommodated in the lead.
Taking off from Sir Joy’s formula, there is a second format: What happened where, when and why. Again, the how could be explained in the second paragraph.
*DATELINE: If the lead has a dateline (which is written in all caps), the time element used is not “yesterday” but the exact day (eg. Monday, Tuesday, etc.)
Example:
BAGUIO CITY – President Aquino told cadets of the Philippine Military Academy Monday that they should help protect the country’s sovereignty from external threats.
Advisories
The advisory is a more detailed version of the lead and is ideally a one-sentence paragraph. It is introduced by a slug or subject.
Advisories or summaries should specify the person/s being quoted (eg. “Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag” instead of “A health official”), name the organization referred to (eg. “Alliance of Concerned Teachers” instead of “A teachers’ group”), and define acronyms that are not well-known by the general public, including your editors (eg. “Campaign Finance Unit” instead of just “CFU”).
Most of the time, an advisory is in the present tense.
Example: Sources say Drilon not likely to become Senate President
An exception: 3 killed, 1 injured in Zambo City blast Saturday night
Other examples of advisories:
a. OZAMIZ
Roxas says 2 police officers charged with murder for killing of Ozamiz gang leaders
b. ESTAFA
Estafa case filed before Sandigan Wednesday vs former PRC Commissioner Alfredo Po for allegedly pocketing P7M oath-taking ceremony fees of new mechanical engineers in 2005
c. CHINA
Some 600 members of West Philippine Sea Coalition stage rally in front of Chinese consular office in Makati. Police say no untoward incident; Chinese embassy closed prior to rally for “security reasons”
Tone
Write in the active voice. Journalese is straight to the point. Use simple words and less adjectives.
Subject-verb agreement
A singular subject takes a singular verb.
A plural subject takes a plural verb.
Parallelism
A sentence/paragraph that contains several phrases or clauses should be made more readable by writing the phrases using the same grammatical structure.
Examples:
Her hobbies are reading, cooking and playing tennis. (Instead of: Her hobbies are reading, cooking and to play tennis.)
Crime and Law Enforcement
a. The (unknown) persons who committed a crime (eg. robbery, murder or kidnapping) should not be called “suspects.”
Examples:
The ROBBERS divested the passengers of their cell phones and wallets.
The KILLERS fled on foot.
b. The (specific) persons who are suspected of committing the crime, eg. robbery or murder, are the ones referred to as “suspects.”
c. Take care of how you add “less” to a word to connote “lack or absence of.”
A suspect is UNARMED not ARMLESS unless he or she is an amputee. 🙂
d. Do not use the word “elements” when referring to operatives of a law enforcement unit, unless you want to join the ranks of reporters who were asked by Sir Pocholo, “Are the ‘elements’ atoms, electrons or protons?” 🙂
We treat law enforcers as persons, so you can use “operatives” or similar words.
Example:
Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency yesterday raided a drug laboratory in a subdivision in Pasig City and seized P10 million worth of high grade shabu.
e. For ethical reasons, we do not identify a rape victim by her real name. We also do not reveal the names of minors who are victims of abuse or crime.
Many also make the mistake of indirectly identifying the victim by revealing his/her address and other personal details even if his/her name is withheld.
f. It’s “body,” never “dead body.” You “take” or “bring” a person to the hospital, not “rush” him/her to it. One is also “taken care of” instead of “taken cared of.”
g. It’s “opened fire” not “open fired.”
Pronouns
The pronoun for a government agency, company, or organization is not “they” but “it.”
Examples:
The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said IT will start repatriating Filipinos in Syria.
The peace panel will submit ITS recommendations after 30 days.
Designations
a. We do not use “spokesperson” in referring to a talking head.
If he is male, he is a “spokesman” (Ex. presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda – please note that the designation is not in capitals and lower case). If she is female, she is a “spokeswoman” (Ex. deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte).
The same is true with other officials, eg. chairwoman, except in some cases like the Ombudsman. Or you can simply say “chair.”
If the word “spokesperson” is part of a quote, use it.
b. The incumbent president of the Philippines is referred to by his title and last name only (Ex. President Aquino), not by his title and full name (Ex. President Benigno Simeon Aquino III)
c. We use just “Speaker” instead of “House Speaker” in referring to the head of the House of Representatives. There is only one “Speaker” and it is understood that he heads the House of Representatives.
Incidentally, “Congress” refers to the Senate plus the House of Representatives, not just one chamber.
We do not use “Lower House” and “Upper House” to refer to the House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively.
d. We refer to Catholic archbishops this way: Manila Archbishop CARDINAL Luis Antonio Tagle.
The title “Cardinal” is placed before the person’s first name, instead of before his last name.
The old style was: Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio CARDINAL Tagle.
e. If it’s possible, use a shortened version of titles that are very long.
Examples:
“Metro Manila police chief” in place of “National Capital Region Police Office chief,” “Censors chief” instead of “Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chairman,” and “Sweepstakes chief” instead of “Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office chairman.”
f. We use “lawyer” instead of “Atty.”
Details Please. (Don’t be shy.)
Of course, any editor would be very happy to receive a story with complete details, and a story with more details has a better chance of seeing print.
So, imagine how an editor would feel if he/she encounters a lead like this:
An UNIDENTIFIED man was killed by an UNIDENTIFIED SUSPECT using an UNDETERMINED weapon for UNKNOWN reasons, a police SOURCE said yesterday. 😦
If a victim is unidentified, include in your story physical attributes that could help identify him/her, such as estimated age and height, built, haircut and hair color, eye color, a description of the face, and other identifying marks.
Background, too.
Aside from covering, taking notes, and writing stories, researching and providing background to give context to a story are part of the reporter’s job.
Redundant terms
Here are some common mistakes:
a. Tuition fee. “Tuition” already refers to a fee for school instruction, there is no need to add “fee.”
b. Mass exodus. “Exodus” refers to the departure of a lot people, so there’s no need to add “mass.”
c. Latest update. An “update” is supposed to be latest information.
d. Illegal contraband. A “contraband” means illegal or smuggled goods.
e. 12 noon and 12 midnight. Just use “noon” or “midnight.”
f. High-ranking. Mr. Romualdez says “ranking” will do.
g. Reelected anew, revert/return back.
h. Repair and rehabilitate.
i. Rules and regulations. In case of the term “implementing rules and regulations (IRR),” we have no choice but to use it because it’s part of an acronym.
Capitalization
Capitalize the first letter of a word if the word is a proper noun, or the name of a person, place, institution, event or thing.
Examples: Felisa Cruz; Zamboanga del Norte; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; First Quarter Storm.
Punctuation marks
a. We place all punctuation marks inside quotation marks.
b. Use a hyphen for descriptive words.
Examples: two-year-old girl; P2.268-trillion national budget
Enumeration
a. Use a semi-colon if there is more than one element in each item that needs to be separated. If not, use a comma.
Examples:
The fatalities were identified as Evelyn Cruz, 48; Danilo Cruz, 30; and Girlie Diola, 25.
b. When you use “among,” “including,” and “such as,” it means you do not have to enumerate everything.
c. Write “15 patrol cars” instead of “15 units of patrol cars.”
d. You are not writing a receipt or invoice, so there is no need to write the specific number in parenthesis.
Example: Seized were three (3) AK-47s and two (2) handguns. L
Acronyms
We’d like to avoid “alphabet soups,” so if the acronym is well-known (eg. National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, New People’s Army etc.), there is no need to reiterate it in parenthesis when mentioning it in the story for the first time.
Example:
The National Bureau of Investigation yesterday recommended the filing of homicide charges against eight Coast Guard personnel for the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman at the Balintang Channel last May 9. [Note: There is no need to add “(NBI)” after “National Bureau of Investigation.”]
Scientific, Legal and Economic Terms
Reporters interview experts during their coverage so they are exposed to a lot of scientific, medical, legal, economic, bureaucratic, diplomatic and military/police/security jargon.
In time, they learn to speak the jargon while conversing with their sources.
Unfortunately, they begin to write jargon also and submit them as stories. This defeats the purpose of being a member of the media or a channel of information and communication.
Write as if you are talking to a high school student or if possible, someone from the upper grade school levels. Most people do not know what “estoppel” means.
Define scientific and medical terms in the simplest way, providing in case of illnesses the symptoms, causes and effects (eg. lead poisoning).
a. “Damage” refers to destroyed things, as in a disaster. “Damages” is the legal fee that is paid to an aggrieved party on orders of a court.
b. The “inter-tropical convergence zone” is called such because the masses of clouds that bring rain form in the region between the Tropic of Cancer, which is above the equator, and the Tropic of Capricorn, which is below the equator, hence the term “inter-tropical.” The Philippines is located within this area.
Find a simpler definition for “inter-tropical convergence zone.”
c. There is a difference between earthquake “magnitude” (strength as measured by an instrument and by the Richter scale) and “intensity (strength based on what are felt and seen by a trained observer). A tropical cyclone is classified (depression, storm, typhoon, and super typhoon) based on wind strength.
d. “Titled” is more appropriate for events, books, etc. instead of “entitled” which refers to entitlements.
e. We use “half-staff” instead of “half-mast” if the flag is flown in mid-pole, unless the flag is in a ship or in the premises of the Navy.
f. We say “divide by three” instead of “trifurcate.”
g. The government issues alerts and repatriates workers in case of “civil war,” “internal strife,” “armed conflict” but never due to “domestic violence.” 😦
h. Most bureaucrats and publicists prefer to use “management” (eg. population management, budget management, media management, and crisis management). Let us be alert and call a spade a spade if it turns out that what they actually mean is “control.”
i. Please note the following terms: accused of; charged with; in relation to; in connection with; and result in.
What’s wrong with “said”?
Many reporters use “noted,” “cited,” “pointed out,” “clarified,” “stressed,” “insisted,” “furthered,” etc. when it is better to just use “said.”
We say “noted” when a person is pointing out something that it not widely known.
What about “averred”?
Our late editor in chief once said in a staff meeting years ago, “I really hate that word, ‘averred’.”
Unnecessary words
a. It’s becoming a widespread practice among writers (aside from wrongly using “they” as a pronoun for almost everything) – the use of “already” too often in their stories, sometimes even twice in the same sentence.
If the sentence can stand without saying “already” or “currently” or “now,” do not use it.
“If you ALREADY believe that your sentence can ALREADY stand on its own, do not write ‘ALREADY’.” 🙂
b. We say “charges will be filed” instead of “APPROPRIATE charges will be filed.”
We’d like to believe that the law enforcers and prosecutors know what they are doing, so let’s wait for the lawyers of the other party to claim that the charges filed against their clients are inappropriate.
c. Just say “documents” instead of “NECESSARY documents.” Let us presume that someone knows what documents should be submitted.
d. You can say “law” instead of “EXISTING law.”
MOST IMPORTANTLY, a reporter has a sense of duty, decency, and pride. Write your own story as you covered and understood it. Do not copy-paste from press releases, transcripts, other reporters’ stories and online news sites.
Remember that your editors handle your stories daily so they know your writing style, including your frequent errors. They can tell from changes in a copy if something is bothering you (based on your lapses and your manner of writing) or if the copy was indeed written by you.
Your editors can also tell from your copy if you were actually present during an event.
Remember also that press releases are emailed to the editors so they can compare your copy with what they received.
As for online news sources, your editors are also connected to the Internet and are capable of using a search engine. They can tell if you lifted your story from another website. 🙂
reginabengco 