8 Broadcast style book
Good style:
‘If I had a donkey as wouldn’t go,
do you think I’d wallop him? Oh no.
I’d give him some corn and cry out ‘Whoa,
Gee up, Neddy.’
Bad style:
‘If I had an ass that refused to proceed,
Do you suppose that I should castigate him?
No indeed.
I should present him with some cereals and
observe proceed,
Continue, Edward.’
– HAROLD EVANS*
Most broadcast organizations have a view about good style, and though they differ in detail, most would agree that good style is usually whatever makes good sense.
George Orwell wrote Politics and the English Language in 1946, but his advice still holds true today:
• Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use ...
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