Monthly Archives: August 2021

How To Write Like Hemingway (and Speak Journalese)


Hemingway’s Four Rules of Writing:

  1. Use a short first paragraph
  2. Use short sentences.
  3. Use vigorous English (drop adjectives; employ synonyms).
  4. Write in the positive, not negative (unhappy = sad; inhospitable = cold)

Bowles’ Four Rules (and one law) of Journalese:

  1. Interview someone as if you’re talking with a friend who needs to be heard.
  2. Assemble the facts of your story into an elevator pitch; that’s your lede.
  3. Write like you speak.
  4. Read your story aloud, as if you were a newscaster.

The one governing law of Journalese:

It us unethical to report anything without evidence to support it.