2.5: Art of Clarity - Paragraphs

This section covers the basics of writing paragraphs for mass media publications. Mass media outlets often publish on multiple platforms. They may develop broadcast-style shows for television, social media platforms that prioritize video, or for streaming. They may publish predominately text content on their own websites or on text-heavy social platforms. They may create content for print publications available to subscribers who prefer to engage with physical media. Whatever platforms media writers are creating for, they are almost never using formal academic language.

This should matter to students in college media writing courses because most of the writing you do on a day-to-day basis is academic in style and tone. To some extent, you have to unlearn what you have learned about writing paragraphs to be a good media writer. Formal style and tone are essential in many parts of society. These are used in business, in government, in legal proceedings, in religion, and, of course, in academia. Media writers are not encouraged to let their formal writing muscles atrophy. They should be able to use formal and less-formal writings styles at a professional level.

Paragraphs, media style

Media writers typically write at a sixth- or seventh-grade reading level for audiences made up of people who have anywhere from a grade-school education to a terminal degree. Even professionals who use formal writing in their day-to-day work life usually prefer media content that is easy to understand more or less immediately. Media writers are most often delivering new information or persuasive information. It is best not to make people work too hard understand you.

What follows are three guidelines for constructing paragraphs for text-based mass media platforms. Broadcast style is covered in another chapter. The imagined audience for these guidelines is college freshmen and sophomores.

1. A paragraph for a mass media publication is almost never five sentences long. Paragraphs are short, usually 2-3 sentences.
2. Most paragraphs in mass media writing focus narrowly on only one concept. A sentence should be limited to one idea. In this sense, a concept might be two or three ideas that logically hang together.
3. In text-based media, quotes get their own paragraph. The attribution indicating who made the comment and the quote, set off in quotation marks, are all that is needed.

Demonstrations

1. The following paragraph comes from a public domain book called The Treasure of Mushroom Rock. Up to this point in the story, two boys have found a hidden room in a castle near an English village. The room had likely not been seen in decades, or even centuries, and the boys have started a fire in the chimney. Thinking the castle may be on fire, villagers approach.

"But though the villagers had no trouble in deciding that the supernatural smoke was due to the agency of witchcraft, Sir Anthony was by no means so easily satisfied. The old Baronet was the largest landowner and chief magnate of the neighborhood. He had been a great sportsman in his day, having shot buffaloes on the plains of America and tigers in the Indian jungles, and though he was now too old for such enterprises, he was still as keen as ever with his gun, and preserved the game upon his large estates with great strictness. Poachers were the bane of his existence; and his declaration that he would prosecute to the utmost extent of the law anyone found infringing upon his game-rights was well known to us and to everybody else in the village."

What follows is a version of the same paragraph as it might appear in a contemporary news feature story:

Sir Anthony was the largest landowner in the village. An experienced big game hunter, he had stopped traveling but still hunted locally. On his properties, he preserved the local game strictly. He hated poachers, and it was well known that he would prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

Both types of writing have their place. The literary paragraph paints a more rich picture. The paragraph for media audiences is stripped of certain details and descriptions. Some of the outdated phrasing has been changed. Some of the grandeur has been lost, but what remains is a character description that is much more to the point. In the interest of holding readers' attention and driving the narrative forward steadily, media writers strive to write short, sharp prose.

2. The concept covered in the two demonstration paragraphs above is the same. Summarized succinctly: Sir Anthony, influential local landowner and hunter, hates poachers.

Students should practice distilling paragraphs of various lengths down to their essential elements. This will help you to write concisely, and it should improve your reading comprehension skills as well.

3. The following example news brief demonstrates how to set a quote aside in its own paragraph.

More than 400 students and staff narrowly escaped a fire at the student union Monday afternoon.

The blaze did not cause any injuries, according to campus police. Officials with Student Affairs said that the blaze broke out in Best Burgers Grille when an oven malfunctioned.

Jeff Rotel, a student worker who was in Best Burgers at the time, said, "It was kind of shocking how fast it took off. My co-worker said that the oven was on fire, and by the time I turned around the fire was spreading up the walls."

A fire suppression system contained the damage to the restaurant's kitchen.

From these examples, you are meant to see how to cut paragraphs down to 2-3 sentences, how to limit paragraphs to only a few ideas, and how to place quotes in their own paragraphs separate from other content. The activity that follows gives you a chance to practice what you just learned.

AOC Activity 2

This activity covers identifying the core concept of a paragraph, distilling descriptive, narrative paragraphs down to short paragraphs, and putting a quote in its own paragraph.

The method for students to edit and submit this assignment is left up to instructor preference.

1. Summarize the following story in your own words in two short paragraphs. The summary paragraphs must be shorter than the originals. Each paragraph should be 2-3 sentences long. No sentence should be longer than 20 words.

The ad for the write-in drawing appeared in the local newspaper. The newspaper only published two days a week, but it was a small town where nothing much ever happened. Twice a week was enough to cover most of the local news. Stan cut out the ad and carefully wrote his name and address in his best cursive on the form, making sure to include his entire phone number, all ten digits. He sent it in with high hopes.

For the three or four weeks that followed, he checked the same newspaper section. The drawing winners were set to be announced in more or less the same spot where the ad had appeared. One day he saw the results. He didn't have to search long before he saw his name, but there never was a semicolon that frustrated him more. The paragraph listing drawing winners said: Martha Davis, $500; Gerald Holmes, $250; Jermaine Johnson, $100; Stan Powers, antique teddy bear. Stan's eyes had rushed to see $100 next to his name. He had stared to celebrate before he looked more closely. His heart sinking, Stan thought he had no idea what an antique teddy bear was, but it sure as hell wasn't a cash prize.

2. Once you have summarized the two paragraphs above into shorter paragraphs, take those two paragraphs and distill them once again so they are suitable for a mass media publication. Leave out all unnecessary details. Step 2 will be complete when you have two paragraphs of only 1-2 sentences each.

3. Now it is time to add the quote included below. Decide whether it should go between the two paragraphs from Step 2 or at the end of the passage. Feel free to edit those two paragraphs again, if needed. You may also edit the wording that provides context for the quote but not the quote itself. Your response should be your best and final version of a brief three-paragraph story.

Stan found his parents and said, "I won a prize in the drawing, but I think I will give it to her," and he gestured to his baby sister.