Editor's note: Lawrence Connor is a former managing editor of the Indianapolis Star. He has put together this package of tips to assist high school journalists. His tips are broken up into different links found here.

A FEW DON’TS

Take care that you don't burden your sentences with an excess of modifiers. Let the facts and descriptive detail do the telling, rather than scattering adjectives in front of nouns. Watch the overuse of adverbs, too. No need to end your quotes with, "he said eloquently" or "morosely" or "violently." If, in fact, a person shouted, then "he shouted" would be proper, but not "he shouted loudly." Nothing wrong, either, with a simple "he said."  

Avoid backing into sentences with long dependent clauses: "While walking down a dark street on the southside one morning last week, Jones stumbled over a wino.”             

Never give an indirect quote and come back with a direct quote saying the same thing. "Life was difficult for Jones," followed by "Life was never easy for me, Jones said.”

Quotes are important. They reveal clues to a person’s personality and provide credibility. But avoid the temptation to string quotes together. You are telling a story, not simply repeating what someone said. Don’t manufacture quotes, either. It’s unethical. Strive to reflect accurately what the person said.  Make the quotes sound authentic without embarrassing the source. Be leery of using dialects; readers find them difficult and irritating. They are tricky to handle, and they can make your subject look foolish or ignorant. Save them for your fiction writing.

Rid your mind -- and copy -- of cliches. They are the tools of lazy writers. Nothing is deadlier than leaning on such bromides as "tried and true," "as a last resort," "laying the groundwork" or "various and sundry."  And avoid pompous jargon, too  – “with respect to”…”in this case”…”despite the fact.”  Just about as deadly are those pop phrases that tickle the populace for a few weeks and then become tiresome cliches – “in your face”…”been there, done that”…”no brainer”…”get a life.”  Avoid relying on crutch phrases like “In this case,” and “the fact that,” and never, never, “At this particular point in time.”  What’s wrong with “now?”  There are hundreds of crutches out there for the lazy writer.

In general, avoid vague and woolly words like very, nice, fine, interesting, evidently, apparently, thing, stuff, indicate and contact. In using contractions, a few “they’res” and “didn’ts” are acceptable if you are trying to be conversational, but avoid their overuse. Take care, too, that you don’t pass along the bureaucrat's jargon with words like finalize, prioritize, input and interface. And don’t let them seduce you into using their euphemisms. They may be blighted areas to the sociologist, but they are still slums to the rest of us.  And a jail is a jail – it’s rarely a correctional institution.  A disadvantaged person is poor.

Let us eschew the urge to use elegant or pretentious words. So why eschew when avoid or shun is clearer? And why albeit rather than although, ameliorate instead of improve, perceive instead of understand?  Some words become fashionable and writers -- eager to be in fashion -- are quick to decorate their copy with such vogue words as viable, parameters, soporific, feckless and peruse. There are no longer places; there are venues. We’re hearing a lot about infrastructures even when they don’t relate to sewers and power lines. Things are always "arguably" the best or worst. Pushing to make today's best dressed word list are oxymoron and serendipity, paradigm and detritus. The words often come across as pretentious. Make sure that your language is appropriate for your audience.    

It's acceptable to use a casual or conversational style but avoid being cute or folksy. Be leery about satire, too; it requires a sure touch. If satire is not clear, it can backfire.  Treat humor with similar deference. Don’t cause readers to wince with forced humor.

Avoid redundancies -- widow of the late, currently president, completely destroyed, razed to the ground, owns his own home, free gift, plain and simple, first and foremost, each and every. Have we finally reduced "consensus of opinion" to consensus?  Acronyms are another problem for readers. Unless the terms are familiar (GOP, NASA, RCA etc.), they can give readers a headache plowing back through the story to locate the proper name.

Chapters:

The Interview
Writing the Story
Editing your Copy
A Few Don'ts
Some General Advice
Say What You Mean
Use Words Correctly
Some Common Errors
Helpful Books
About the Author