5th Edition

English for Journalists Thirtieth Anniversary Edition

By Wynford Hicks, Gavin Allen Copyright 2023
214 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

214 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

214 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

English for Journalists has established itself in newsrooms the world over as an invaluable guide to the basics of English and to those aspects of writing, such as reporting speech, house style and jargon, which are specific to the language of journalism. Written in a highly accessible and engaging style, English for Journalists covers the fundamentals of grammar, spelling, punctuation and... Read more

Introduction: how this book began

1 English today

2 Grammar: the rules

3 Grammar: 10 common mistakes

4 Grammar: problems and confusions

5 Spelling

6 Punctuation

7 Reporting speech

8 Style

9 Social media

10 Words

11 Foreign words

12 Figures

Appendix 1 Style guide

Appendix 2 The ‘fronted adverbial’ muddle

Appendix 3 Glossary of terms

Further reading

Index

Biography

Wynford Hicks has worked as a reporter, subeditor, feature writer, editor and editorial consultant in magazines, newspapers and books, and as a teacher of journalism specialising in the use of English, subediting and writing styles. He is the author of Quite Literally.

Gavin Allen is Digital Journalism Lecturer at Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture. He has been a journalist for 20 years, latterly as Associate Editor of Mirror.co.uk, having previously worked at MailOnline, MSN and WalesOnline.

Reviews of previous editions:

‘For those uncertain of their word power and those who know in their bones that they are struggling along on waffle, a couple of hours with this admirably written manual would be time well spent.’

Keith Waterhouse, British Journalism Review

English for Journalists is a jolly useful book. It’s short. It’s accessible. It’s cheap. And it tells you what you want to know.’

Humphrey Evans, Journalist

‘It makes a simple-to-use guide that you could skim read on a train journey or use as a basic textbook that you can dip into to solve specific problems.’

Short Words