Journalists prefer plain language.

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Journalism: Muzzle your biases. Seek out diverse but credible sources. You’ll be criticized anyway, from multiple directions.

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Name-calling and ad hominem attacks don’t provide anyone with reasons to change their mind.

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A shooting, the president snatched away – this episode of ‘The Trump Show’ was surreal even for veteran White House reporters

Good news writing, and praise for Trump’s cool demeanor during a crisis, from : The Independent The large man in the grey suit interrupted Donald Trump. No one interrupts Donald Trump – especially at the White House. At his White House. Then the man turned his back to the television cameras showing the utterly surreal scene live around the…

Multimodal Composition: Every time a student submits a narrated PowerPoint, a puppy cries.

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The ‘Cancelling’ of Flannery O’Connor? It Never Should Have Happened

I regularly teach Flannery O’Connor, and assign a whole book of her short stories when I taught an American Lit 1915-Present course. Now that I’m teaching “American Lit 1776-Present” I keep her stories in rotation, but I have more material to cover, so I have to be more selective. O’Connor’s fiction contains many themes and…

Sentence Definition: Species = Genus + Differentia

Sentence Definition: Species = Genus + Differentia

Jerz > Writing > Technical Writing Tips Similar:Why Even Try if You Have A.I.? Now that machines can think for us, we have to choose wheth…Spring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy GraveyardThis 1960s teenager knew the neighborhood that inspired August Wilson’s playsA.I. Is Getting More Powerful,…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu Logo

In July, 2000, I was creating handouts on the sounds of poetry, prototypes, and writing for the web

It seems that an unusually high percentage of links I posted to my website in July 2000 no longer work, but here are a few links that I could find via the Wayback Machine: The guy who invented the “pet rock” won the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest for really bad writing. Humorous courtroom transcripts Q: All…

Novel defined: a term used by some students to mean “any text we study in English class”

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Journalists who are doing their job by reporting fairly on a controversial topic often get attacked from both sides. 

Americans can fairly and legitimately differ on important values. Freedom or security? Peace or justice? Which short-term sacrifices are worth making, for which long-term benefits?

Most readers will nod along with whatever parts of a story affirm their values. A significant number will reject any story — even one that’s carefully sourced and fact-checked — if it challenges their world view. (“So biased!” “Fake news!”)

Whenever even the fairest-minded journalists tackle a high-stakes story involving groups with different levels of access to wealth, education, healthcare and personal security, any honest story they publish is going to make someone upset.

I never have time to create materials like this during the academic year. Brand new handout. Easily 10 hours of work. Hoping to post one a week.

AP Style follows the standard English practice of capitalizing proper nouns. They stayed with Uncle John at Gracious Living Inn on the shore of Grenada Lake while on vacation in the South. Capitalize the names of particular people, places or things. (Proper nouns.)  In the above example, “shore” and “vacation” are common nouns. They stayed with my uncle at a hotel on the south end of a peaceful lake.…

Okay yes, this affirmation does matter to me and it will go into my annual review for next year.

Marked 832 AP English essays in a week of online work. Rating is based on how accurately I marked the pre-graded training examples scattered in amongst the flood. A really good professional development tool, that helps me to align my assessment with what my peers feel is high school writing skill that deserves college credit.…

Bias Check! Consult different sources for a fuller picture.

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Understanding the difference between credible information and propaganda

In the context of my role as a teacher interested in encouraging my students to understand the difference between credible information and propaganda, this language from DonaldJTrump.com will make a good discussion topic. I teach my journalism students to cover stories fairly. Journalists would not be doing their job if they simply repeated the results of…

NYPD’s Lt. Cattani offers heartfelt apology for “wrong decision” that threw his reputation “in the garbage” May 31

Cops are trained to make snap decisions under highly stressful situations. Often their training saves lives. Sometimes they deeply regret decisions they make. After thinking back on his recent behavior while working during a protest at Foley Square May 31, NYPD officer Robert Cattani offered a heartfelt apology: “I know I made the wrong decision,”…

Post-publication review as an efficient alternative to pre-publication peer review

Andrew Gelman of “Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science” writes: Peer review is fine for what it is—it tells you that a paper is up to standard in its subfield. Peer reviewers can catch missing references in the literature review. That can be helpful! But if peer review catches anything that the original authors…

Liberal arts college professor assaults alt-right group member

Carefully choosing language that fits your slant is a powerful form of persuasion. I try to teach my students to recognize and avoid biased language, which is a more difficult process than simply firing back with different biased terms that support your own slant (“You’re an anti-choice woman hater,” “No, you’re an anti-life baby killer!”).…