Justice B. Hill

Advice from Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman: “What makes me happy is rewriting. … It’s like cleaning house, getting rid of all the junk, getting things in the right order, tightening things up. I like the process of making writing neat.”

Goodman didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize for no reason. She’s an artist with words, and her advice should be useful to anybody who aspires to produce great work as a sports journalist.

Please consider the issues and usage points below when trying to do what Goodman does so well: make her “writing neat”:

affect/effect: A few exceptions aside here, one is a verb [affect]; the other, a noun [effect].

* ages: This is directly from AP. Always use figures for people, animals and inanimate objects: The girl is 15 years old; the law is 8 years old; the 101-year-old house. When the context does not require years or years old, the figure is presumed to be years.

Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun.
Examples: A 5-year-old boy, but the boy is 5 years old. The boy, 7, has a sister, 10. The woman, 26, has a daughter 2 months old. The race is for 3-year-olds. The woman is in her 30s (no apostrophe).

* as/like: According to the AP Stylebook, use the word “like” as a preposition to compare nouns and pronouns. The word “as” is a conjunction ["and," "but," "for," etc.], so it is the correct word to introduce clauses.

* Essential/nonessential clauses: “Nonessential clauses” [dependent clauses that don't effect the meaning of the independent clauses] should be set off with a comma from the rest of the sentence; “essential clauses” are not set off with commas. You can often find these clauses referred to as restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses.

* who/whom: To check for proper usage, insert “he” every time you have used “who” in a clause. Insert “him” every time you have used “whom.”

* its/it’s: “It’s” is a contraction; “its,” a possessive pronoun.

* they’re/their/there: Words that sound alike but have different meanings cause problems because they are hard to spot in copy. Worse, few rules apply to help you use them properly. To know the difference between any homonym, even triple ones such as “ware”/”where”/”wear,” you have to memorize them.

* site/sight/cite: Each of these words has a different meaning. Just as the example above, these words present problems for young journalists. Master their meanings. Put words like “peak” and “peek” or “bear” and “bear” into the same category.

* disagreement: Two types: noun-pronoun disagreement and noun-verb disagreement.  Watch out for false plurals like “every” and “each”: “Each [Every] writing and research project helps me in the classroom.”

* Baseball is played in “innings.” Never use “frame,” “stanza” or other such words. [I have yet to hear a ballplayer say he hit a home run in the second "frame." So if a player won't use it, neither should you.]

* Basketball is played in “quarters” or “halves.” Do not use “periods.”.

* Couple of: Do not write “a couple weeks,” “a couple hours,” etc. Make it “a couple of weeks.” The AP Stylebook is clear on this usage point.

* Hockey is played in “periods.” Do not look for a synonym.

* Embrace “said” for attribution. “Said” is perfectly valid word that can be used repeatedly without distracting a reader. Unless your meaning is something other than “said” (maybe shout or whisper), you should stick with “said.” Doing that tells the reader exactly what you mean, and, sometimes, the repetition is good for emphasis.

* “However” is not used in stylish prose the same way as ”but” or ”yet.” Look up the proper – or, should I say more effective? — use of the word in “Elements of Style.”

* “All right” is the correct; “alright” is not.

* Forwards, backwards, towards, etc. are words that run counter to the AP Stylebook. Instead, use “forward,” ”backward” and “toward,” except in a direct quotations.

* “Enormity” doesn’t mean what you think it means. Look up the proper use of the word.

* Prior to: A no-no in journalism, though lazy writers continue to use the two words. AP style frowns on the word “prior to.” The preferred choice is “before.” Why use two words when one word will do?

* Hyphenations are tricky to master, but the AP Stylebook spells out in detail when to hyphenate words and when not to. Study the stylebook. A good grammar book will also serve you well.

* AP style on numbers is specific. In general, all numbers under 10 are spelled out … nine, eight, seven, six … All numbers 10 and above take numerals … 11, 12, 121, 1,211, 112,122. Of course, the latter reverts to the under 10 rule for numbers at the start of a sentence. The rule on using numbers for people’s ages is also different. Again, consult the use of “ages” above.

* As with people’s ages, AP has clear rules for proper use of heights and weights. Both come up frequently in sportswriting; both are frequently used incorrectly in sports stories.

* Major cities in the United States and around the world don’t need the state or country. It’s Cleveland, not Cleveland, Ohio. … It’s Chicago, not Chicago, Ill. … It’s Fort Wayne, Ind., not Fort Wayne. … London, not London, England. Again, consult the stylebook on these points. Also, the U.S. Postal abbreviation isn’t always the same as the AP abbreviation. For example, the AP Stylebook does not use an abbreviation for Ohio, so you should say Springfield, Ohio, and not Springfield, OH, in your articles.

* “That” and “which” trick up many writers. One introduces “essential” information; the other, “non-essential” information. The first doesn’t take a comma; the second does. The AP Stylebook goes into detail on this point. So does a good grammar book and “Elements of Style.”

* Quotation marks [" "] always go outside a period and a comma — no exceptions, ever. Not even for book titles. The rules are a bit more complicated for question marks. For colons and semicolons, the quote marks always go inside those punctuation marks.

* Grappler: Take this horrid word out of your vocabulary. It has no place in sportswriting. Neither do words like batsman, harrier, southpaw, circuit clout, kegler and skipper.

* Master the spelling of harass and embarrass. The first takes one r; the second takes two. Other words like accommodate, siege, seize, all right [not alright] and commitment fit into this category.

* “Presently” does not mean “now.” It means “soon,” “in a little while” or “shortly.”

* Use of commas: The AP Stylebook says, “When a conjunction such as ‘and,’ ‘but’ or ‘for’ links two clauses that could stand alone as separate sentences, use a comma before the conjunction in most cases.”

* Master the spelling of “harass” and “embarrass.” The first takes one r; the second takes two. Other words like accommodate, siege, seize, all right [not alright] and commitment fit into this category.

* Study the correct spellings of words central to football, basketball and baseball. Your AP Stylebook has a section called “Sports Guideline and Style.” Read the chapter closely and understand its content. Is it “ball park” or “ballpark”? Is it “ball carrier” or “ballcarrier”? Does “team” take the pronoun “it” or “they”? Learn these answers.

* None: The word usually takes a singular verb, and the AP Stylebook says use a plural verb only if the sense is no two or no amount: None of the consultants agree on the same approach. None of the taxes have been paid.

For more information on these grammatical and usage points, check out www.mhhe.com/arnold. Also, remember this bit of advice: “Good writers are never content. They’re always trying to find better details, a sharper focus, a beginning that captivates and an ending that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.”