Writing for Journalists, 3rd Edition by Jane Bentley & Tim Holmes & Harriett Gilbert & Adams Sally & Wynford Hicks

Author:Jane Bentley & Tim Holmes & Harriett Gilbert & Adams Sally & Wynford Hicks [Jane Bentley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Engineering, Personal & Professional Development
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

Write for your reader

Centrally, critics must write for their readers, not for the artists whose work they are assessing (nor for fellow reviewers, however much they would like their good opinion). This does not mean that critics’ opinions should twist and turn to make their readers happy; it means that critics should serve their readers. To do this, they must know who their readers are.

The readers of redtop tabloids, for instance, expect very few reviews – mainly previews of television programmes – but, what they get, they like to be short and snappy, followed as a rule by a ‘star rating’ (five stars for ‘Don’t miss it’, one for ‘Garbage’, to quote the Daily Star). At the other end of the newspaper market, although space for arts coverage is shrinking, readers still appreciate longer, more carefully argued reviews. A lead book review in the Observer, for example, might run to 1,000 words of description, argument and opinion. (Occasionally, reviews in the broadsheets never get to the opinion bit at all, especially reviews of biographies by writers who were acquainted with the subject and choose to devote their space to reminiscence. This is not an example to be followed.)

There are magazines – from GQ to the New Statesman – that also run single reviews of 1,000 words or more. But most, even among the glossy monthlies, do not. This is partly because their designers refuse to have pages packed with grey columns of words. It is also because, when they do choose to run a lengthy piece on the arts, it is more likely to be in the form of a feature. So Red might run an interview of over 1,500 words with the actress Natalie Portman but, in the same issue, have a lead film review (of Suite Française) that’s scarcely 350 words long, with subsidiary reviews of under 50 words each. Even Time Out, a magazine of which reviews are an important component, usually runs them at between 250 and 400 words, no more.

The time your readers expect to devote to reading your review is important, but length is far from being everything. Tone of voice and cultural references matter too. See how Jon Ronson’s book about ‘social media fury’, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, is reviewed in two very different publications. Red is a women’s lifestyle magazine primarily concerned with fashion, beauty, relationships and celebrities. Its review of the book begins like this:

Jon Ronson is one of the funniest writers we have, as George Clooney will tell you (he bought the rights to Ronson’s book The Men Who Stare At Goats and then starred in the film).

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