THE SYNTAX OF ONLINE WRITING

 

Syntax is the arrangement of words and sentences to convey an idea and meaning.

For online media, there are unwritten rules that a writer follows to while writing news stories. Unlike literature, news is written for information and for people who may not have very high literacy level.

Keeping the audience in mind, online writing demands simple and short sentence construction, which are easily comprehensible(Understandable).

 The purpose of the news is  convey information and opinion directly, leaving no chance for ambiguity. So that  instead of being long winding sentences, using direct language is essential in news writing. Likewise, the words used should not have any double meaning or complicated sentence construction.

As mentioned earlier, the language of news writing should be simple, clear and brief. As news is supposed to convey facts, important points should come first, followed by less important and then the least important.

A reader needs to get the complete facts after reading the first paragraph. The rest are elaboration on what has been written earlier.

Online News Story

It is a good practice to use colloquial or Writing for Online Media in conversational language . 

 Use present progressive tense as much as possible to convey the immediacy of news.

 Keep the headline in active voice and be specific rather than general in conveying the information to your readers.

 You should avoid using definite and indefinite articles in the headline.

The principle of online writing is clarity, conciseness, continuity correctness, commonness, credibility and completeness . 

If you  have a good functional vocabulary and knowing synonyms of words will help you avoid repeating the same word in a sentence.

 

 Choice of Words and Phrases

Words are symbols and carriers of meaning .

Strong words and superlatives like the best, finest, and brightest should be avoided as they are relative and we have no means to ascertaining the claims.

 The words we use should be concrete, specific and and  having credibility of what we  write. You should also try to use short words.  The use of words, which are commonly understood and are easy.

Simplicity of words and language is the driving force of online media writing.

Phrases, which are foreign to targeted audience, should be avoided.

Instead of saying

                                                               i.      ‘it was raining cats and dogs’,

it is better to say,

                                                             ii.      ‘it was raining heavily’.

 

Similarly, do not use the word ‘very’ too often in your news writing to convey magnitude.

 

Sentence Construction

Then number of words in each sentence should not exceed 16-18.  Also  a single idea needs to be conveyed in one sentence. while writing news stories,   avoid complex sentences and  they are often used in feature writing as part of creative liberty.

The rule of simplicity and clarity is essential for online media writing. Sentences form the basic bricks of the news structure and hence, they should convey its salient features clearly. It should be brief and crisp and convey concrete meaning with one idea in each sentence.

It is desirable to use short sentences, as they are easy to understand and takes less time to comprehend.

It is advisable to avoid long complicated sentences conveying multiple messages.

If the sentences is long, it could be broken into smaller sentences, through  re-writing. Ideally, a sentence should not contain more than 16-18 words.

It is important that sentences flow effortlessly one after the other in a logical, and gradual manner. Abrupt break and moving from one idea to another without any connecting link should be avoided.

Punctuation marks should be used wherever necessary to convey the important idea.

 

Structure and Paraphrasing (Interpreting)

Reading a long text on a computer screen or a mobile phone can be a strain to the eye. That is one of the reasons why it is advisable to write short sentences and keep shorter paragraphs.

It is better to break up the body text into smaller paragraphs each containing not more than seven or eight lines.

Each paragraph should convey an idea which should be logically taken forward in the next paragraph.

Sometimes, pictures and info graphics are used to break the monotony of a textually heavy page.

Using bullet points and pointers helps in highlighting the important points in a news story.

Although there is no fixed rule for paragraphing and structuring the body text, the online writer should keep in mind two important features of online behaviour.

1.       Firstly, the attention span of the readers is short and constantly flickering due to diversions on the web page like advertisement and scrolls.

2.       Secondly, the story should be able to sustain the interest of the reader.

Check Your Progress:

1. Briefly explain the syntax of online media writing.

2. What do you think is the reason for keeping online media writing?

3. In online media writing, which are the elements added to break the monotony of a text-heavy page?