ABSTRACT
One of the biggest differences between writing for print and writing for broadcasting is the number of descriptive or qualifying words deployed. Most print journalism is packed with adjectives, either to sell the paper hard with sensationalist language – massive, miraculous, desperate, tragic, explicit, steamy – or to describe the general mood, context or political climate as concisely as possible – troubled, controversial, bitter, conciliatory, desperate, beleaguered. In spoken English, these adjectives and similar adverbs almost always sound like oversell, and many are pure journalese. Talking to your listeners and viewers in hyped-up language sounds unnatural and can sound ridiculous. ‘3-G phones are incredibly vital to the entire industry’, said an excitable BBC Breakfast presenter in 2003. And a political correspondent recently exclaimed ‘The Department of Education is facing total meltdown!’.
