Hemingway can’t stop with “said.“

How would the story have changed if he had?

Diction in non-fiction

Word choice matters tremendously in all types of writing, and journalists want people to read their work. In your opinion, which of these styles should be most careful about diction?--news--opinions--sports--features

Compare these statements.

• The mayor said he trusts his advisors.• The mayor suggested he trusts his advisors.• The mayor argued that he trusts his advisors.• The mayor talked about his advisors.

• What is the impact of each verb following “The mayor…”? Do those verbs say the same things? Is diction conveying bias here?

What about these? Do they really say the same thing?

• Over 900 people participated in the campaign drive.

• Fewer than 1,000 people participated in the campaign drive.

How does diction impact readers here?

Here are the headlines and lead paragraphs of two articles which came out on the morning of March 11, 2003. They are covering the same incident:

Iraq forces suspension of U.S. surveillance flightsUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Iraqi fighter jets threatened two American U-2 surveillance planes, forcing them to return and abort their mission and return to base, senior U.S. officials said Tuesday.

U.N. Withdraws U-2 PlanesWASHINGTON (AP)-U.N. arms inspectors said Tuesday they had withdrawn two U-2 reconnaissance planes over Iraq for safety reasons after Baghdad complained both aircraft were in the air simultaneously.

New York Times 3/11/2003 USA Today 3/11/2003

Consider the following headlines from various newspapers, all relating to similar news about the war in Iraq:

• ‘War Imminent as Hussein Rejects Ultimatum’ (New York Times, March 19, 2003)

• ‘Butcher Tells U.S. – Come and Get Me’ (New York Post, March 19, 2003)

• ‘Saddam Scorns U.S. Ultimatum (New York Daily News, March 19, 2003)

• ‘Baghdad Rejects Bush’s Warning’ (ArabicNews.com, March 19, 2003)

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/slanted-sentences/

This happens often in sports journalism

Compare yesterday’s Red Sox-Yankees headlines.

From the Boston Globe:Red Sox offense flat in loss to Yankees

From the New York Daily News:Yankees beat Red Sox, climb within four games of American League wild card spot Hiroki Kuroda fired seven superb innings of one-run ball, holding the Red Sox to four hits and no walks, striking out eight