ABSTRACT
Phrases that are too cute or simply don't work with the pictures may wind up merely puzzling the audience. Broadcast news writer should use active voice, and try to stay with present or future tense in stories, especially leads. And they should be clear and concise, use positive phrasing and watch out for pronouns and time and space problems created by words. Short introductory clauses and phrases work fine; parenthetical ones do not. With rare exceptions, a parenthetical phrase makes a sentence difficult if not impossible to follow because it requires the audience to remember what the writer was talking about before the phrase started. Attribution is needed when they are dealing with anything that might be considered controversial, especially if it is changeable. Writer should avoid state-of-mind statements, generally they did not quote and minimize the use of numbers. And they need to be careful with race identification, and avoid sexism and cliches.
