Talk about English - News and the media 3 - Good plain English pt1 | Текст песни

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• News and the media 3 - Good plain English pt1

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BBC Learning English
Talk about English
Live webcast – Good, plain English
Thursday September 14th, 2006


About this script
Please note that this is not a word for word transcript of the programme as broadcast.
In the recording process changes may have been made which will not be reflected
here.



Jackie: Hello, this is Talk About English, coming to you live from Bush House
in London. I'm Jackie Dalton.

Callum: And I'm Callum Robertson. In the programme today we continue our
focus on news and the media.

Jackie: And find out what makes good, plain English.

Trevor: In advance of the meeting there will be a pre-planning plenary session
with all committee members to combine together reflections on the
suggested proposal

Jackie: And what makes English that isn't quite so good.

Callum: Also, blogging…

Jackie: And how one London blogger gained international fame

Callum: Our guests today are Anna McKane - experienced journalist, trainer
and author of a new book on news writing. Welcome Anna. Can you
tell us a little more about yourself?

Anna: (responds)

Jackie: And we're also joined by an English learner, Stefan Roemermann.
Thank you for joining us. Tell us about yourself.

Stefan: (responds)

Jackie: The focus of this programme is how to write and speak in good clear
English. This is part of our wider look at news and the media – a theme
we've had over the last couple of weeks. I think there's a good reason
why we're linking the topics of news and good, plain English: Anna,
good news writing can really teach all of us something about how to
use language in our everyday lives, can't it?

Anna: (responds)

Jackie: Anna, throughout the programme, you're going to be giving us tips on
what makes good English. And this might be especially useful for
those of you who want to enter our competition to win an mp3 player
by sending us your eyewitness report – details of how to enter are on
our website. The deadline is Monday 18
th
of September. But let's start
with Anna's first bit of advice on good English.

Anna: (use plain everyday English).

Jackie: Well let's set a challenge for Stefan, our English learner here in the
studio. We're going to give you some words and you've got to come up
with simple, everyday versions. Here are the words:


in advance of – before
assist – help
approximately – about
in order to – to
commence – start
utilise – use
request – ask
residence - home

Jackie: We hear or see examples of unnecessarily complicated language use
quite often – I hear the first one almost everyday. Listen to these
phrases and try to spot what's wrong with them.

Phrases
Please allow passengers off the train first before boarding
Please enter your PIN number
A free gift
An aromatic aroma
A new innovation
If you don't get better you'll never improve
A bouquet of flowers

All: (discuss)

Phrases

A brief moment
To combine together
A complete monopoly
He was completely destroyed
A difficult dilemma
A new bride

All: (discuss)

Jackie: Coming up, we'll hear about your dream jobs.

Callum: But first, let's have one more tip from Anna on how to write good,
plain English. We've had "Don't use too many words," we've had "Use
simple everyday words." What else would you recommend?

Anna: (Use 'listen to me words' – go easy on the adjectives, use verbs etc.)

Jackie: Now you've got quite a good exercise that students can do to help them
improve their English and we're going to get Stefan, our English
learner here in the studio to do the exercise. You can do it too if you’re
listening at home.

Anna: (Exercise - 'The person ran down the road towards the building'
exercise…how to be more precise, more arresting)

Callum: And if you're doing this at home, why not send us your sentences and
we'll see what we come up with. The address is
talkaboutenglish@bbc.co.uk

Jackie: Coming up later on, precision in using English.


Callum: But first, last week we heard from Mark, a foreign correspondent –
someone who reports from a different country on what's happening
there. Mark is a very experienced foreign correspondent who has
travelled to many different parts of the world. This week, we're going
to hear from someone who is just starting out as a foreign
correspondent.

Jackie: Jonny is 24, he's trained as a journalist and he's got a fantastic first job.
He's off to Madagascar in two days to work as a reporter out there. I
spoke to him earlier and asked him to explain what he'd be doing. As
you listen, try to answer this question: what is a stringer?

Jonny

Callum: So as Jonny explained to us, a stringer is someone who is placed in a
country and looks out for news stories there and reports on them. But
they're usually not directly employed by the news organisation –
they're paid for each story that gets printed or broadcast, but they don't
get a constant fixed salary.

Jackie: Jonny used the expression 'keeping an ear to the ground' – what does
that mean?

Callum: (explains - to make sure you always know what's happening)

Jakcie: Next I asked Jonny why he wanted to be a stringer? What reasons does
he give?

Jonny


Talk about English
September 14th, 2006
© BBC Learning English
Page 6 of 15
bbclearningenglish.com
6



Callum: Jonny wants to be a stringer for lots of reasons, including 'to open
people's eyes' - to make them aware of what's going on in different
parts of the world and to challenge himself.

Jackie: Next I asked Jonny what skills he thought were needed to do his job.
He'll mention several, but there's one skill he's a bit worried about –
he's not sure if he is very good at it. Which one is he concerned about?

Jonny

Jackie: Well Jonny was a bit worried about organisational skills - he said he's
never been that good at being organised. What other skills did he
mention?

Callum: He said you've got to be good at motivating yourself, which means to
make yourself do things without someone having to tell you do to them.
He said there would be no-one breathing down his neck.

Jackie: Yes, that's a nice phrase - what does "to have someone breathing down
your neck" mean?

Callum: (explains - to constantly watch them and tell them what they should be
doing)

Callum: Jonny said you have to be good at talking to people. Anna, do you
agree that's an important part of being a good journalist – building up
relationships?

Anna: (responds)

Jackie: Next I asked Jonny if other foreign correspondents had given him any
advice about his new job. What advice has he been given about his
career?

Jonny

Jackie: Anna, Jonny's advice to listeners entering our eye witness report
competition. "Tell it how it is, keep it simple." Good advice?

Anna: (responds)

Jackie: Let's go back to hear a last word from Jonny.



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