Fingers crossed for award hopefuls

The Daily Telegraph trainees, 2007, with Press Association Training's Mike Watson (left): Jon Swaine - in the blue shirt - is in line to win the Young Journalist of the Year award in the British Press Awards on Tuesday.

Good luck to all the nominees in the annual British Press Awards on Tuesday evening.We have three entrants in the Young Journalist of the Year Category and two nominated for the Showbiz Reporter of the Year award.

Potential young journalist recipients are:

Ex Newcastle foundation course delegates Guy Basnett, now with the News of The World who was a trainee with the Chester Chronicle when he was with us, before he moved to The Journal, Newcastle.

Andrew Gregory, The Daily Mirror, is also nominated. He was a Mirror graduate trainee who took our 16-week course.

And Jon Swaine, Daily Telegraph, was in the first intake of Telegraph trainees who took the training course we ran for the Telegraph three years ago in Howden, East Yorkshire.

The entrants in the Showbiz Reporter of the Year award are Fiona Cummins, Daily Mirror, who was also a Mirror graduate trainee and Sarah Tetteh, Daily Mirror, who was sponsored through the Newcastle course by Trinity Mirror South. The awards ceremony takes place at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London. Walter Greenwood, former co-editor of Essential Law for Journalists, is to receive a lifetime achievement award at the same event. Despite being in his 80s, Walter still marks law papers for us in Newcastle. We are delighted his huge efforts in guiding journalists through the legal pitfalls are being honoured in this way.

TJ

Sex! Sensation! Pets! Heroism!

I'm indebted to the British Journalism Review for an interview with the legendary Donald Zec (left). One of the trailblazers of popular journalism he was a Daily Mirror writer for forty years.

Zec talked of the first story he wrote for the Mirror after moving south from the regional press in Manchester. It's an anecdote that has served me well. I've used it often to explain to both journalists and non-journalists the importance of using specific words rather than vague generalised vocabulary.

When asked to cystalise the elements of a perfect tabloid story Zec replied: "Sex, sensation, pets and heroism."

He went on to explain that he was sent out to cover a fire and returned to write a fairly standard intro:

Firemen were called to extinguish a blaze in Old Compton Street last night...

The news editor called him over and explained that this was the Mirror where things are done slightly differently.

He was told to unload the contents of his notebook into the ear of one of the wise old subs who would re-write it in Mirror -style. The new intro came back:

Clad only in her scanties, a blonde, 22-years-old night-club hostess climbed along a 30ft parapet in a Soho fire last night to rescue her pet cat Timothy.

And there you have it: Sex, sensation, pets and heroism.

There is a valuable lesson to be learnt here though. The second version is clearly more readable and engaging than the first - not only because it involves a scantily-clad blonde. The real skill is in using very specific words to build images. Firemen extinguishing a blaze is boring, because it doesn't paint a picture or conjure an image. A blonde, 22-year-old night-club hostess risking life and limb on a parapet to rescue her cat is full of specific detail which brings the story to life. Even the use of Soho rather than Old Compton Street adds colour to the piece.

The very best writers understand the value of small detail and know when to use it. Those who are new to the craft tend to use 'big and clever' words because they believe that's what's required. I once asked an American delegate on one of our writing courses why she insisted on using words like 'commenced' instead of 'started' and 'dispatched' rather than 'sent'. And she replied that she didn't want people to think she was stupid. Her words were clearly a reflection of her own self-image. And that's why it's harder than people think to write well.

Writing is a highly personal experience which is why we find it so difficult to edit our own work. As I often say on writing courses - the principle of simple English is easy to understand but very diffcult to execute.

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