| Tips for Writing Health News
1. Never use the word miracle. Leave that to ministers, mayonnaise-makers and sportswriters.
2. Don’t use breakthrough. I’m not saying, never ever use it under any circumstances whatsoever. But breakthroughs are infrequent, and the word breakthrough, like controversy, is so overused that it has lost much of its impact. (Remember: impact is a noun, not a verb. And major breakthrough is redundant. As the wiseacres say, Help stamp out and eradicate superfluous redundancy.)
3. Avoid cure. Announcements of cures are rare, and they must be handled with utmost care. But there’s one cure that’s simple, one you can help bring about: the cure of hype.
4. May doesn’t mean will.
5. Suggests or indicates doesn’t mean finds or proves.
6. Contributes to, is associated with, or is linked to does not mean causes. (Thank you, University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter. But, dear reader, please don’t use wellness in a script or a conversation unless you’re in Berkeley.)
7. If you have time, download the study you’re writing about (if available) or the original news release and see what’s what for yourself.
8.One study by itself seldom proves anything. So don’t treat the results of a study as the last word.
9. Identify the source of the story. Apply a basic rule of broadcast news-writing: Attribution precedes assertion. So before telling what was said, tell who said it. If you start like this, “A new study says,” then in your next sentence, identify the publication or institution: “The Institute of Cranial Exploration says its study looked into….” And proceed carefully.
10. Don’t be an alarmist. Don’t exaggerate. Don’t speculate. Cogitate.
11. You can’t believe everything you read, but you should believe everything you write. |
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