Q1. One cannot be a truly great journalist without having a deep love of
language. Discuss.
Most young men and women accepted into the Journalist profession possess at least one of the above desires from the start. But desires alone will not make a successful journalist. You need to cultivate certain special qualities and skills.
Love of language
You cannot be a truly great journalist without having a deep love of language,
written or spoken. You must understand the meaning and flow of words and take
delight in using them. The difference between
an ordinary news story and a great one is often not just the facts you include, but the way in which you
tell those facts.
Journalists often have an important role in developing the language of a country, especially in countries which do not have a long history of written language. This places a special responsibility on you, because you may be setting the standards of language use in your country for future generations.
If you love language, you will take care of it and protect it from harm. You will not abuse grammar, you will always check spellings you are not sure of, and you will take every opportunity to develop your vocabulary.
The news story – the basic building block of journalism – requires a simple, uncomplicated writing style. This need for simplicity can frustrate new journalists, even though it is often more challenging to write simply than to be wordy. Once you have mastered the basic news story format, you can venture beyond its limits and start to develop a style of your own.
Do not be discouraged by a slow start. If you grow with your language you will love it all the more.
An alert and ordered mind
People trust journalists with facts, either the ones they give or the ones
they receive. You must not be careless with them. All journalists must aim for
accuracy. Without it you will lose trust, readers and ultimately your job.
The best way of ensuring accuracy is to develop a system of ordering facts in your mind. You should always have a notebook handy to record facts and comments, but your mind is the main tool. Keep it orderly.
You should also keep it alert. Never stop thinking – and use your imagination. This is not to say you should make things up: that is never permissible. But you should use your imagination to build up a mental picture of what people tell you. You must visualise the story. If you take care in structuring that picture and do not let go until it is clear, you will have ordered your facts in such a way that they can be easily retrieved when the time comes to write your story.
With plenty of experience and practice, you will develop a special awareness of what makes news. Sometimes called news sense, it is the ability to recognise information which will interest your audience or which provides clues to other stories. It is also the ability to sort through a mass of facts and opinions, recognising which are most important or interesting to your audience.
For example, a young reporter was sent to cover the wedding of a government minister. When he returned to the office, his chief of staff asked him for the story. “Sorry, chief,” he replied. “There isn’t a story – the bride never arrived.” As his chief of staff quickly pointed out, when a bride does not turn up for a wedding, that is the news story. The young reporter had not thought about the relative importance of all the facts in this incident; he had no news sense.
A suspicious mind
People will give you information for all sorts of reasons, some justified,
others not. You must be able to recognise occasions when people are not telling
the truth. Sometimes people do it unknowingly, but you will still mislead your
readers or listeners if you report them, whatever their motives. You must
develop the ability to recognise when you are being given false information.
If you suspect you are being given inaccurate information or being told deliberate lies, do not let the matter rest there. Ask your informant more questions so that you can either satisfy yourself that the information is accurate or reveal the information for the lie that it is.
Determination
Some people call it aggressiveness, but we prefer the word determination. It
is the ability to go out, find a story and hang on to it until you are
satisfied you have it in full. Be like a dog with a bone – do not let go until you have got all the meat off, even
if people try to pull it out of your mouth.This means you often have to ask hard questions and risk
upsetting people who do not want to co-operate. It may be painful but in the
end you will gain their respect. So always be polite, however rude people may
be. The rule is simple: be polite but persistent.
While you are hunting for your story, you may drive it away by being too aggressive. Sometimes you may have to approach a story with caution and cunning, until you are sure you have hold of it. Then you can start to chew on it.
Friendliness
You need to be able to get on well with all sorts of people. You cannot pick
and choose who to interview in the same way as you choose who to have as a
friend. You must be friendly to all, even those people you dislike. You can, of
course, be friendly to someone without being their friend. If you are friendly
to everyone, you will also be fair with everyone.
Reliability
This is a quality admired in any profession, but is especially valued in
journalism where both your employer and your audience rely on you to do your
job. If you are sent on an interview but fail to turn up you offend a number of
people: the person who is waiting to be interviewed; your editor who is waiting
to put the interview in his paper or program; your readers, listeners or
viewers, who are robbed of news.
Even if you are late for an appointment, you will upset the schedules of both your interviewee and your newsroom and risk being refused next time you want a story. In a busy news organisation, punctuality is a necessity. Without it there would be chaos.
To summarise
There are many reason for becoming a journalist and many type of journalists
to become. It is a career with many challenges and rewards. Journalists must:
Q3. Identify active /passive
statements:
(5)
1. I was frightened by the storm. : Passive
2. My car ran out of gas on the Resources Road. :Active
3. I might have forgotten to add your name to the list.: Active
4. The child was struck by a stray bullet. : Passive
5. My heart was broken. :Passive
Most young men and women accepted into the Journalist profession possess at least one of the above desires from the start. But desires alone will not make a successful journalist. You need to cultivate certain special qualities and skills.
An interest in life
You must be interested in the world around you. You must want to find things out and share your discoveries with your readers or listeners – so you should have a broad range of interests. It will help if you already have a wide range of knowledge to build upon and are always prepared to learn something new.
Love of language
You cannot be a truly great journalist without having a deep love of language,
written or spoken. You must understand the meaning and flow of words and take
delight in using them. The difference between
an ordinary news story and a great one is often not just the facts you include, but the way in which you
tell those facts.Journalists often have an important role in developing the language of a country, especially in countries which do not have a long history of written language. This places a special responsibility on you, because you may be setting the standards of language use in your country for future generations.
If you love language, you will take care of it and protect it from harm. You will not abuse grammar, you will always check spellings you are not sure of, and you will take every opportunity to develop your vocabulary.
The news story – the basic building block of journalism – requires a simple, uncomplicated writing style. This need for simplicity can frustrate new journalists, even though it is often more challenging to write simply than to be wordy. Once you have mastered the basic news story format, you can venture beyond its limits and start to develop a style of your own.
Do not be discouraged by a slow start. If you grow with your language you will love it all the more.
An alert and ordered mind
People trust journalists with facts, either the ones they give or the ones
they receive. You must not be careless with them. All journalists must aim for
accuracy. Without it you will lose trust, readers and ultimately your job.The best way of ensuring accuracy is to develop a system of ordering facts in your mind. You should always have a notebook handy to record facts and comments, but your mind is the main tool. Keep it orderly.
You should also keep it alert. Never stop thinking – and use your imagination. This is not to say you should make things up: that is never permissible. But you should use your imagination to build up a mental picture of what people tell you. You must visualise the story. If you take care in structuring that picture and do not let go until it is clear, you will have ordered your facts in such a way that they can be easily retrieved when the time comes to write your story.
With plenty of experience and practice, you will develop a special awareness of what makes news. Sometimes called news sense, it is the ability to recognise information which will interest your audience or which provides clues to other stories. It is also the ability to sort through a mass of facts and opinions, recognising which are most important or interesting to your audience.
For example, a young reporter was sent to cover the wedding of a government minister. When he returned to the office, his chief of staff asked him for the story. “Sorry, chief,” he replied. “There isn’t a story – the bride never arrived.” As his chief of staff quickly pointed out, when a bride does not turn up for a wedding, that is the news story. The young reporter had not thought about the relative importance of all the facts in this incident; he had no news sense.
A suspicious mind
People will give you information for all sorts of reasons, some justified,
others not. You must be able to recognise occasions when people are not telling
the truth. Sometimes people do it unknowingly, but you will still mislead your
readers or listeners if you report them, whatever their motives. You must
develop the ability to recognise when you are being given false information.If you suspect you are being given inaccurate information or being told deliberate lies, do not let the matter rest there. Ask your informant more questions so that you can either satisfy yourself that the information is accurate or reveal the information for the lie that it is.
Determination
Some people call it aggressiveness, but we prefer the word determination. It
is the ability to go out, find a story and hang on to it until you are
satisfied you have it in full. Be like a dog with a bone – do not let go until you have got all the meat off, even
if people try to pull it out of your mouth.This means you often have to ask hard questions and risk
upsetting people who do not want to co-operate. It may be painful but in the
end you will gain their respect. So always be polite, however rude people may
be. The rule is simple: be polite but persistent.While you are hunting for your story, you may drive it away by being too aggressive. Sometimes you may have to approach a story with caution and cunning, until you are sure you have hold of it. Then you can start to chew on it.
Friendliness
You need to be able to get on well with all sorts of people. You cannot pick
and choose who to interview in the same way as you choose who to have as a
friend. You must be friendly to all, even those people you dislike. You can, of
course, be friendly to someone without being their friend. If you are friendly
to everyone, you will also be fair with everyone.
Reliability
This is a quality admired in any profession, but is especially valued in
journalism where both your employer and your audience rely on you to do your
job. If you are sent on an interview but fail to turn up you offend a number of
people: the person who is waiting to be interviewed; your editor who is waiting
to put the interview in his paper or program; your readers, listeners or
viewers, who are robbed of news.Even if you are late for an appointment, you will upset the schedules of both your interviewee and your newsroom and risk being refused next time you want a story. In a busy news organisation, punctuality is a necessity. Without it there would be chaos.
To summarise
- Have an
interest in the world around them
- Love
language
- Have an
alert and ordered mind
- Be able to
approach and question people
- Be polite
but persistent
- Be
friendly and reliable.
|
Sr. No.
|
Verb Tenses
|
Name of VerbTenses
|
|
1
|
Today, Carl kicks the ball across the field.
|
Present indefinite
|
|
2
|
Today, Carl is kicking the ball across the field.
|
Present continue(progressive)
|
|
3
|
Tomorrow, Carl will kick the ball across the field.
|
Future indefinite
|
|
4
|
Carl has been kicking the ball across the field.
|
Present perfect
continue(progressive)
|
|
5
|
Today, Carl has kicked the ball across the fieldsix
times.
|
Present perfect
|
1. I was frightened by the storm. : Passive
2. My car ran out of gas on the Resources Road. :Active
3. I might have forgotten to add your name to the list.: Active
4. The child was struck by a stray bullet. : Passive
5. My heart was broken. :Passive
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