They should be avoided, except when they help the listener understand the story and help you keep wordiness to a minimum.  Guidance on how a partic ular term should be handled is provided in the individual entries in the book.

NOT EVEN THESE BELOW, SPELL THEM OUT!

state names

company 

incorporated

limited

Abbreviations

titles 

ONLY 

Mr.

Mrs. 

Ms.

Abbreviations 

junior and senior

Do NOT abbreviate these, and do not set them off with commas: 

Martin Luther King Junior.

Abbreviations

time

numeric clock references and periods in history should be abbreviated using a hyphen:

a-m

p-m

B-C

A-D

It is always preferable to spell out these references (9:30 this morning rather than 9:30   a-m) but when they are appropriate, the hyphenated abbreviation may be used.

Use "anti-abortion" instead of pro-life, and "abortion rights" instead of pro-abortion or pro-choice.  

Avoid abortionist, which connotes a person who performs clandestine abortions; use the terms "abortion doctor" or "abortion practitioner"

If mention of a degree is necessary to establish a person's credentials, avoid the abbreviationand use a phrase such as: John Jones has a doctorate in psychology.  

The defendant is Doctor Jim Jones who practices internal medicine.  Jones is being sued for malpractice.

Use apostrophe in bachelor's degree, a master's degree.

Use lowercase except for words that are proper nouns or adjectives:

the department of history, the history department, the department of English, the English department.

Capitalize and spell out such formal titles as professor, dean, president, chancellor and chairman when they precede a name. 

Lowercase elsewhere:

Professor John Jones, BUT John Jones, a professor.

Modifiers such as history or department shoudl be lowercase, as in:

history Professor Oscar Handlin, OR

department Chairman Jerome Wiesner. 

Accept means to recieve

Except means to exclude

These are words that are formed from the first letters of a series of words.  Use only those that are commonly known.

Acronyms should be capitalized, and shouldn't be hyphenated:

NATO, CORE, the START treaty

Audiotape of a newsmaker talking.  Generally, radio actuality should be 10 to 20 seconds long.  

Don't use an actuality for the sake of using it.  Often the anchor can tell the story better than a piece of tape can.  It should contribute something to the story, such as the point of view of the newsmaker, or the unique way in which the newsmaker said or did something

Spell out all terms such as street, road or drive.  Follow the rules for numerals.

Street addresses should only be put into copy when they are relevant to the story.

These words may in some contexts give the erroneous connotation of wrongdoing or imply that the subject is responding to an accusation.  A person who announces that he is a homosexual, for example, may be acknowledging it to the world, not admitting it.

Says is usually sufficient 

To Adopt is to accept or approve.

The resolution was adopted.  The child was adopted.

To Adapt is to change.  

He had to adapt to the circumstances.

Amendments, ordinances, resolutions and rules are adopted or approved. 

Bills are passed

Laws are enacted.

Adverse means unfavorable:

He predicted adverse weather.

Averse means reluctant or opposed:

She is averse to change.

Affect, as a verb, means to influence:

the game will affect the standings.  

Affect, as a noun, is best avoided.  It is occasionally used in psychology to describve an emotion, but rarely used in everyday language.  

Effect, as a verb, means to cause:

He will effect many changes in the company.

Effect, as a noun, means result:

The effect was cool.  He miscalculated the effect of his actions.  It was a law of little effect. 

Follow the rules for numerals in expressing the ages of persons or objects.  A person's age should only be used when is directly relevant to the story.  Avoid redundancies; it is enough to say someone is a boy or a girl, without saying they are young.

Hyphenate the age when it is used as a noun, or as an adjective before a noun:

The boy is five years old, BUT the five-year-old.

The five-year-old agreement, BUT it was five years old.  

Do not use the common print-style construction in which the age is placed immediately after a name and offset with commas, instead say the woman is 26.  she has a daughter.

(al fah-TAH')

A Pallestinian guerrilla organization.  Drop the article 'Al' if preceded by an English article:

The Fatah statement, the Fatah leader.

The word must be used with great care.  Avoid any suggestion that the anchor or reporter is making an allegation.

SOME GUIDELINES:

Source: specify the source of an allegation.  in a criminal case, it should be an arrest record, an indictment or the statement of a public official connected with the case.

Unproved action: use alleged bribe or similar phrase when necessary to make it clear that an unproved action is not beng treated as fact.  be sure that the souce of the charge is specified in teh story.

Redundancy: avoid redundant uses of alleged.  it is proper to say: the district attorney alleged that she took a bribe.  OR: the district attorney accused her of taking a bribe........BUT NOT: the district attorney accused her of allegedly taking a bribe.

What is being alleged: be careful about the placement of alleged in reference to an event that is known to have occurred when the dipute is over who participated in it.  do not say: he attended the alleged meeting when what you mean is: he allegedly attended the meeting.

Synonyms: do not use alleged as a routine qualifier.  instead, where appropriate, use words such as apparent, reputed, suspected, reported or accused.  

To allude to something is to speak of it without specifically mentioning it.  

To refer is to mention it directly.

Allusion means an indirect reference:

The allusion was to his opponent's war record.

Illusion means an unreal or false impression: 

the scenic director created the illusion of choppy seas. 

The maxim that between introduces two items and among introduces more than two covers most questions about how to use these words.

HOWEVER, between is correct in expressing the relationships of three or more items considered on pair at a time:

Negotiations on a debate formate are under way between the network and the Ford, Carter and McCarthy committees. 

As with all prepositions, any pronouns that follow these words must be in the objective case: among us, between him and her, between you and me.

Anybody, any body

anyone, any one

One word for an indefinite reference: 

Anyone can do it.

Two words when the emphasis is on singling out one element of a group:

Any one of them may speak up.

Apostrophe

[']

Teh apostrophe is used to indicate the possessive, a contraction or the omission of letters or figures.  in using it, strive for readability.  

-possessives

-contractions

-omitted letters- use apostrophe to indicate omitted letters like in: rock 'n' roll, 'tis the season.

-omitted figures- when indicating a specific year, use an apostrophe: the class of '62.  BUT  when indicating a decade, no apostrophe is needed before the figure: the roaring 20's.

-Plurals- when adding an s to letter or figures: he got three B's on his report card.  There were five 747's on the runway.

-Pronouncers- use the apostrophe to indicate teh stressed syllable

When two terms appear next to each other in a sentence, and one is used to explain the other:

Joe, the tallest person in town, had to use a ladder to rescue the cat.AVOID USING THIS CONSTRUCTION.  BREAK THE SENTENCE INTO TWO: Joe is the tallest person in town.  But he had to use a ladder to rescue the cat.

ESSENTIAL PHRASE: word or group of words critical to the listener's understanding of what you have in mind.  DO NOT USE COMMAS TO SET THE ESSENTIAL PHRASE OFF FROM REST OF SENTENCE: I was talking to Brooks' sister Allison last night. (she has two sisters so you need to know which one.)

NON-ESSENTIAL PHRASE: provides additional info about something.  Although the info may be helpful to the audience's comprehension, the listener would not be misled if the information were not there. USE COMMAS TO SET NON-ESSENTIAL PHRASE OFF FROM REST OF SENTENCE: I was talking to Brooks' eldest sister, Katherine, last night about the wedding. (Brooks can only have one eldest sister, so the non-essential info 'Katherine' is set off by commas)

An assassin is a politically motivated killer.

A killer is anyone who kills with a motive of any kind.

A murderer is one who is convicted of a murder in a court of law.

Popularly, assault most always implies physical contact and sudden, intense violence.  **Legally, however, assault means simply to threaten violence, as in pointing a pistol at an individual without firing it.

Assault and battery is the legal term when the victim was touched by the assaulter or something the assaulter put in motion.  

In common usage the words are interchangeable.

 Technically, however, an attorney is someone (usually, but not necessarily, a lawyer) empowered to act for another.  Such an individual occasionally is called an attorney-in-fact.

A lawyer is a person admitted to practice in a court system.  Such an individual occassionally is called an attorney-at-law.

Do not abbreviate.  Do not capitalize unless it ts an officeholder's title: defense attorney Perry Mason, attorney Perry Mason, District Attorney Hamilton Burger.

Average refers to the result obtained by dividing asum by tge number of quantities added together

Mean commonly designates a figure intermediate between two extremes: The mean temperature of the day, with a high of 56, and a low of 34 is 45.

Median is the middle number of points in a series arranged in order of size.

Norm implies a standard of average performance for a given group.

He plans to stay awhile.

He plans to stay for a while.

Bad should not be used as an adverb.  It does not lose its status as an adjective, however, in a sentence such as 'I feel bad'.  Such a statement is the idiomatic equivalent of 'I am in bad health'.

An alternative 'I feel badly', could be interpreted as meaning that your sense of touch was bad.

Bail is money or property that will be forfeited to teh court if an accused individual fails to appear for trial.  It may be posted as follows:

• The accused may deposit with the court the full amount or its equivalent in collateral, such as the deed to a property.
• A friend or relative may make such a deposit with the court. 
• The accused may pay a professional bail bondsman a percentage of the total figure.  The bondsman, in turn, guarantees the court that it will receive the full amount in the event the individual fails to appear for trial.

It is correct in al cases to say that an accused posted bail or posted a bail bond (the money held by the court is a form of bond).  When a distinction is desired, say that the individual posted bail, that bail was posted by a friend or relative, or that bail was obtained through a bondsman.  

The process by which an individual or organization, acting voluntarily or by court order, liquidates its assets and distributes the proceeds to creditors.  The action may be involuntary, as the result of a suit by creditors, or it may be a voluntary effort to deal with bills that cannot be paid.  

Often a company with financial problems announces that it is seeking to reorganize under federal bankruptcy laws.  in such a case, it is incorrect to describe the company as bankrupt.  

A story that announces such a filing shoudl specify teh chapter of teh Federal Bankruptcy Act under which the reorganization is sought and describe the basic provisions...

Bankruptcy: filings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code

Chapter Seven

Bankruptcy: filings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code

Chapter Eleven

Bankruptcy: filings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code

Chapter 12

Bankruptcy: filings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code

Chapter 13

Use because to denote a specific cause-effect relationship: 

He went because he was told.

Since is acceptable in a casual sense when teh first eevent in a sequence of led logically to the second but was not its direct cause:

He went to the game, since he had been given the tickets.

Biannual means twice a year and is a synonym for the word semi-annual.

Biennial means once every two years.

Both lead to confusion, so just try to avoid and say twice a year, or every two years

A boycott is an organized refusal to buy a particular product or service, or to deal with a particular merchant or group of merchants.

An embargo is a legal restriction against trade.  it usually prohibits goods from entering or leaving a country.  

A one-sentence story of an extremely urgent nature.  It is not merely a very important story.  It should be an item of special interest and immediate urgency.  

A bulletin is air-ready.  It may be followed by several more one- or two-sentence takes (making it a bulletin series)  if the flow of info lends itself to such treatment.  

Generally a bulletin series should be followed by an urgent.  The form:

Soviet-Major BULLETIN

(Moscow-AP) -- Britain's Prime Minister says there is fear of imminent conflict in Moscow.

Soviet-Major BULLETIN, take 2

John Major says his information comes directly from Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Soviet-Major BULLETIN, take 3

He says Yeltsin, speaking a short while ago from teh Russian parliament, told him that a column of Soviet tanks is headed for the building.

***

Note the space between the slug and BULLETIN and the comma before the take number.

Legal definitions of burglary vary, but in general a burglary involves entering a building (not necessarily by breaking in) and remaining unlawfully with the intention of committing a crime.

Larceny is the legal term for the wrongful taking of property.  Its non-legal equivalents are stealing or theft.

Robbery in the legal sense involves the use of violence or threat in committing larceny.  In a wider sense it means to plunder or rifle, and may thus be used even if a person was not present: His house was robbed while he was away.

Theft describes a larceny that did not involve threat, violence or plundering.

NOTE: you ROB a person, bank, house, etc...

you STEAL the money, jewels, etc.