CLARITY, CLARITY, CLARITY

There is a strong – indeed overwhelming – argument that, whatever
politicians, lovers and secondhand car dealers may do, journalists must be
clear above all; that journalism has no point otherwise; that an essential
part of its function is to interrogate the politicians and conmen, to
represent and communicate with the ordinary person confronted by
authority, salesmanship, jargon, pretension . . . Journalism must be clear.

Individual words and phrases must be clear so that your reader can understand
them. For example, you must be careful with technical terms – a
word suitable for a specialist periodical might be too abstruse for a daily
paper. And, just as important, anything you write must be clear in structure:
you must say things in the right order – without aimlessly repeating
yourself or digressing too far from your main point.

Does this mean that the traditionalists are right after all? For journalism
(as opposed to other kinds of writing) do we have to go back to the slogan
‘Write plainly and clearly’?
Certainly, if journalism could be reduced to plainness and clarity, life
would be much simpler and well-edited listings pages could stand as the
perfect model of good style. But obviously this won’t do. So we have to
think again.

Plainness and clarity are associated for two reasons. First, to repeat the
point, there are certain kinds of journalistic writing (basic news, instructional
copy) where they belong together. Second, the easiest, safest way
to achieve clarity is by plainness: avoid frills and you can be confident you
will get your meaning across without having to strain too hard.

This is why trainee journalists are instructed to write plainly: to learn
to walk before they start running. The point is not that these instructions are wrong but that they are
incomplete: plainness is not all. For if we distinguish between plainness
and clarity, we can see that journalism – though it must have clarity
– should not necessarily be plain. It should be plain where plainness is
a virtue – as in basic news and instructional copy – and it should be
coloured where colour is called for, as in feature news.