Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms. ' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of … - William Safire

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Quote of the day

I was awakened by a tremendous earthquake, and though I hadn ever before enjoyed a storm of this sort, the strange thrilling motion could not be mistaken, and I ran out of my cabin, both glad and frightened, shouting, "A noble earthquake! A noble earthquake" feeling sure I was going to learn something.

William Safire

Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms. ' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede. ' Where they lede, do not follow.

Columnists, Insiderisms, Jargon, Journalistic, Taken

Same Author Quotes

After eating, an epicure gives a thin smile of satisfaction; a gastronome, burping into his napkin, praises the food in a magazine; a gourmet, repressing his burp, criticizes the food in the same magazine; a gourmand belches happily and tells everybody where he ate; a glutton empraces the white porcelain alter, or more plainly, he barfs.

Belches, Eating, Giving, Gourmet, Satisfaction, White

Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing; the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.

Boxing, Knowing, Prose, Reader, Space

Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.

Ambiguity, Ems, Eye, Hot, Shot

Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks. ”'

Avoid, Mark, Marks, Quotation, Quotation Marks, Quotations

. . . it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root; F. D. R. used the phrase earlier.

Baby, Forget, Hitler, Nwo, Order, Popularization