COHERENCE An article that skips illogically from topic to topic and back again in a jumbled, befuddled manner lacks coherence. Coherence means sticking together, and that is  what  stories  and  articles  should  do.  Facts  should follow facts in some kind of reasonable order. It may be logical order, chronological order, place order or order of importance, depending on the subject, but order of one kind or another is vital. Outlining will often help. EMPHASIS Make sure your writing emphasizes what you want it to. You assure this in newswriting by putting the most important fact first (the lead,  discussed later). There are other types of arrangements for emphasis that are used in feature stories or in.editorials. More information will be presented on this later in this chapter. OBJECTIVITY To report news accurately, you must keep yourself detached   from   the   happenings   and   present   an impersonal, unbiased, unprejudiced story. This is why you  never  see  a  good  reporter  at  an  accident  running around saying, “Isn’t this horrible? I feel so sorry for the family. Why, just the other day I was talking to ol’ Jed, and  now  he  is  dead.”  These  may  very  well  be  your feelings, but you must attempt to keep aloof in order to give an objective report. It is not your job to influence people directly, but rather to tell them what is going on. You direct their thinking only to the limited extent that you  make  them  think  for  themselves  by  an  unbiased presentation of the facts. UNITY A news story should deal with one basic topic. There may be many facts and ins and outs to the story, but it is still  one  story.  If  you  set  out  to  write  a  story  on  the services and activities available at the enlisted club, and end up with a biography of the club manager, the story lacks unity. The simple solution frequently is to write two  stories,  rather  than  trying  to  combine  a  mass  of information into one. THE LANGUAGE OF NEWSWRITING Written language is made up of three elements — words, sentences and paragraphs. It. is the way these elements  are  handled  that  makes  the  difference  between literary and news English. Briefly, let us look at these elements   separately. Words Words  are  your  basic  tools.  Like  any  skilled technician, you should be able to select the best tools to do the best job. This means you should use words that say exactly what you mean so they can be understood by  others. Every word used in a news story should add to the picture you are building in the minds of your readers. If you use an unnecessary, vague or unfamiliar word, this picture  becomes  blurred.  If  it  becomes  too  blurred,  it may give the reader a distorted picture of the facts. This is a form of inaccuracy that is just as bad as putting the wrong facts down on paper. It is an axiom of newswriting that words that do not work for you, work against you. Here are a few tips on making words work for you. AVOID  GOBBLEDYGOOK.—  Gobbledygook  is confusing  writing,  often  marked  by  pseudotechnical language  that  readers  cannot  understand.  In  writing  a technical   story,   do   not   parrot   the   words   some technical-minded researcher pours out.  Simplify. Ask, “What  does  this  mean  in  everyday  English?”  Few people,   for   example,   know   what   “arteriosclerosis” means. But when you say “hardening of the arteries,” they immediately understand. AVOID  WORDINESS.—   Many  nexperienced writers put unnecessary words into their news copy. Call a   spade   a   spade,   not   “a   long-handled   agricultural implement  utilized  for  the  purpose  of  dislodging  the earth’s  crust.” Short, common words are easy to understand when, in many cases, long words are not. If you must use a longer  word,  make  sure  you  are  using  it  to  convey  a special  meaning,  not  just  for  the  sake  of  using  a  big word.  Why  use  contribute   if give  means  the  same thing?   This   also   applies   to   veracity   for  truth, monumental  for big, apprehension  for fear, canine for dog  and  countless  others.  Practically  every  part  of speech  contains  long  words  that  may  be  replaced  by shorter and more exact ones. The same principle applies to  phrases.  Why  say  “afforded  an  opportunity”  when “flowed”  is  more  exact,  or  why  use  “due  to  the  fact that” instead of “because”? BE  SPECIFIC.—   Inexactness  is  just  as  bad  as wordiness.   Readers   want   to   know   specific   facts. Consider the following example of this: 2-8