Groaners!

From: newswriting.com/groaners.htm

You know em. You love em. But cant we live without em? Groaners are those horrible, overused, hackneyed phrases that turn news copy into boring, same old, same old stuff. Here are some of the worst offenders:


Aftermath - Print words dont belong in spoken copy. Do you know anyone who says aftermath in normal conversation? When we were kids, aftermath came recess.

Allegations - I deny the allegations... and I deny the alligator! This bloated substitute for claims, charges or accusations is as bad as allegedly. Nobody in real life uses it. Unless theyve been watching too much TV news.

Allegedly - NOBODY, not even cops and district attorneys, NOBODY in real life says allegedly in regular conversation. Do you tell your neighbor that someone allegedly broke into your house? Do you tell your buddy that the mayor allegedly took a bribe? Why then, would you say such a thing to your television neighbors?! If youre worried about legal protections, try these alternatives: Police say Jones broke into the store. Prosecutors are claiming Smith embezzled the money. The U.S. Attorney says the Congressman took a bribe.

Amid, Amidst - Print words. Newspapers may get away with them, as substitutes for in the middle of, but we write for the ear... and any ear that hears amidst will soon be telling the brain to click the remote.

Area Residents - Shhh, Tommy, dont play the drums so loud, youll wake the area residents! Normal people dont refer to their neighbors this way. Why should we?

Arraigned - Courtroom stories are complicated enough. Dont make things worse with terminology designed by, and intended for bureaucrats. Ditch the term. Use the EXPLANATION of the term instead. Say the guy appeared in court. Say he faced a judge. Say he was formally charged. Say how he pleaded.

At The End Of The Day - The Clearly of the 21st century. Politicians and pundit/talking head types ram this awful phrase down our throats whenever they want to intimidate, show off, or end the argument. Please dont fall into their trap. At the end of the day, night falls. Thats it.

Botched Robbery, Robbery Gone Bad - Like unsuccessful suicide, this is just plain silly. If some punk tries to rip off a 7-Eleven, and the cops show up, so he takes hostages, thats not a robbery gone bad. It was bad at the start. We dont need to feel sorry for the idiot who botched his chance to empty the cash register and decided to become a kidnapper. Lets just say what happened, and leave the judgments to the folks watching.

Campaign Trail - What, exactly, is a campaign trail, anyway? Are there covered wagons? Does Campaign Cookie rustle up Campaign Grub? Do folks munch Campaign Trail Mix? Just say where the candidate is, and get on with it.

Center Stage - Very theatrical, and about as bad as its evil twin, In The Spotlight. Very non-conversational. Insulting, too. Theres no need for a clich to tell us, hey, this story is important! Avoid the collective duh!! from the folks watching.

Chanting Slogans - Ah, those wonderful memories of all those protest marches where we bellowed, A Stitch in Time Saves Nine! Neither A Borrower Nor A Lender Be! State Farm Is There! If demonstrators are shouting something important, say what it is.

Clash With Police - The cops wore blue and the rioters wore purple. A serious faux-pas before Labor Day. Stripes and checks clash. Cops and mobs FIGHT, and we should say so.

Clinging To Life - Narrow escapes, traffic accidents and serious illnesses seem to generate Clich Hell (more groanable examples: Fighting For His/Her Life; Lucky To Be Alive). Use them on a friend and hell probably laugh in your face and say, Who are you, Ted Baxter?

Death Toll - Does someone ring a heavenly bell every time a person dies? Does a heavenly nickel get dropped in the fare box on some celestial highway? Maybe up there. Down here we speak plain English.

Estranged - Yes, this is a convenient little term for not-quite-divorced husbands and wives. Trouble is, no one in real life ever says, Peg and I cant take it anymore. Were estranged. No one has a trial estrangement. If a couple is separated, say so.

Famed - Mommy, mommy, I just saw somebody famed over there! When did famous become a dirty word?

Fell to his death - Cant you just see the poor guy, toppling out the window, hurtling toward the pavement, looking down and exclaiming Hey, whaddaya know! Theres my death, right down there! People fall down and are killed.

Firestorm of Controversy - Whoa! Get out the flame-retardant umbrellas! Non-conversational, and bad hyperbole, all rolled into one. Just explain what the controversy is, without the brimstone.

First leg of - Whether its a mission on the space shuttle, or a Presidential visit to the Middle East, newswriters cant seem to resist breaking down the trip into legs, instead of parts, countries, orbits or what have you. Theres only one place where this phrase belongs: The first leg of the centipede appears broken.

Fled on Foot - Coptalk for ran away. No coptalk allowed.

Flurry Of Activity - Not unless youre the weathercaster, and its beginning to snow. There are plenty of less stuffy ways to say someones busy.

Gunned Down - You mean, like... shot?

Hamper and Damper (not to be confused with Hekyll and Jekyll, who didnt write too well, either) - Somehow, rescues and investigations are never just difficult. Theyre hampered by rough terrain or reluctant witnesses. And youd be amazed how many drive-by shootings put a damper on block parties.

Heating up - Soup, maybe. Unfortunately, this term seems to show up every time we get within three weeks of an election. If its not a close race, dont say it is.

Held Talks - The President and the British Prime Minister held talks at the White House. When you and your co-workers gather in the conference room, are you holding talks? When you call someone into your office, is it to hold talks? And when you cant get in to see the boss, does his secretary say hes holding talks? A meeting is a meeting is a meeting. People meet. Even in the White House.

Here At Home - A clich AND a bad transition! This is the lazy mans way of getting from a plane crash in Cairo to a car crash on I-95. Know what? A person hearing this is likely to say, What do they think I am, an idiot? Like I dont know my own backyard isnt in Egypt?!

Hospitalized - Bathrooms get sanitized. Shirts get Martinized. People do not get hospitalized. Theyre in the hospital.

In Harms Way - Wars. Cops. Bystanders. This has become the new, supposedly more noble or poetic way of saying In Danger. Please try not to overuse it. (Its also the title of a very old movie. And it was the brilliant caption on a photo of baseball great Harmon Killebrew, with a giant cast on his broken arm.)

In The Line Of Duty - Coptalk. Noble as it may sound, this is not normal conversational English. Whats wrong with saying the police officer was killed on the job?

In The Wake Of - Boats have wakes. Dead people have wakes. Stories dont. An event happens after, right after, immediately after another event, not in the wake of it.

Killing Spree - Websters says a spree is a lively frolic. Mass murder is not a spree. Its mass murder.

Local - Ask a New Yorker. Local means the subway makes three stops, instead of one, to get to 59th Street. Dont use phrases like, a local man is in jail tonight or He was rushed to a local hospital. If the guys birthplace or the hospitals street address matters, say so. If not, dont waste viewers time.

Major Breakthrough - By definition, theres no such thing as a minor breakthrough, any more than theres such a thing as a miniature Sumo wrestler.

Manhunt - First of all, no one thought it was a foxhunt! Second, this is Cop-talk Supreme. Non-conversational, and sexist to boot. A search is a search.

Marred - Some writers cant resist describing that inevitable Christmas car crash that marred the holiday spirit. Leave a wet glass on the armoire, and the furniture gets marred. Thats about it.

Mastermind - Anytime theres more than one mugger/bank robber/con artist working together, we reward the guy in charge with this silly title, instead of just saying he planned the crime. Look, Professor Moriarty outwitting Sherlock Holmes, thats a mastermind. Some creep who sticks a gun in a tellers face... no way.

Motorists - Where have all the drivers gone? Dont fall into the DMV Handbook trap.

Officials Say, Authorities Say - WHICH officials/authorities are saying it? Name a name, give a title. This overused piece of news camouflage only tells viewers, we didnt bother to find out. Is that what you want to say?

On Hand, On The Scene - Silly, outmoded jargon for there. How many of your friends talk this way? Hey, Joe! I went to this party, and guess what? Tom Hanks was on hand!

Pedestrians - DMV babble. They were people before they stepped off the curb. Theyre people after they step off the curb.

Plagued - Isnt it funny how politicians arent troubled by scandals anymore? Theyre plagued! Pharaoh seeing frogs in his oatmeal... thats a plague. Anywhere else... dump it.

Plunge, Plummet - Ever notice that nobody just falls anymore? Newtons Law applies. No matter what word you use, you hit the ground just as hard, so keep it simple.

Pursuit - This ones very big in Los Angeles where news choppers love to follow police speeding down the freeway after some guy who didnt pull over. But Pursuit is pure coptalk. A chase is a chase is a chase.

Rank and File - An old-fashioned print term for union members. Ever notice that rank and file has nothing human in it? These are hardworking PEOPLE were talking about! Say so.

Recent Memory - Its the bloodiest massacre in recent memory. Admit it. Why do you say recent memory? Because you dont remember! You dont know if its the worst disaster in 10 years, 15 years or 45 minutes! But you dont want to tell your viewers that, so you fudge. All youre really doing is telling them how bad your research staff is. If you dont know the right number, go find out.

Reportedly - Do you know anyone, anywhere on the planet, who uses reportedly in normal conversation? If someone is reporting something, say so.

Reeling - Typical day-after-disaster nonsense. As if whole towns can be seen walking down earthquake, flood or hurricane-ravaged streets, spinning and spiraling as they go. Please. Reels are for fishing poles. Just say what the people are doing.

Seen Here - As in, Michael Jackson, seen here on the left with an adolescent llama.... Nobody in real life says seen here to identify someone. Imagine your Aunt Tillie, showing those vacation slides: And your Uncle Ed, seen here falling off the pier... Whats wrong with saying, thats him on the left?

Sexually Assaulted - This is a delicate subject, especially when a child is involved. But were in the clarity business as much as the truth business, and when someone is raped, molested or whatever, its wrong to fall back on coptalk for the sake of vagueness. We should say what happened, as carefully, tastefully and conversationally as possible. No one, in a real conversation ever says, Oh my God, my sister was sexually assaulted!

Slain - Dragons are slain. People are killed.

Slated - Maybe once upon a time, frequently occurring events like rallies, movie openings and Jennifer Lopez weddings were written on slates. Not these days. Whats wrong with saying the protest will take place on Tuesday?

Speaking Out - For some reason the parents of the missing teenager never just "speak" or "talk" about their ordeal, they "speak out" about it (does anyone ever "speak in?") Almost as bad as "tells his story" or "breaking his silence."

Spectacular Fire - Wow! look at that spectacular fire! There must be 20 people trapped in there! Cool! Lets never use positive-sounding words to describe negative events. The dictionary equates spectacular with thrilling. Fires dont thrill. Fires kill.

Staffer - What do you do for a living? Oh, Im a staffer for the Governor. This horrible contraction has no place in normal spoken English, where regular folks talk about people who work for the Governor, or even people on the Governors staff, but not staffers.

Suffered a Heart Attack/Sustained Minor Injuries - Amazing how many folks out there sustain minor injuries, even though they werent badly hurt.

Team Coverage - Stuffy, pretentious, and about as non-conversational as you can get. News managers think it conveys importance. Wrong. Committing the resources to cover the story does that. Back in rhe day,David Brinkley understood. His version was short and simple: We have two reports, beginning with Marvin Kalb in Washington. Beautiful, isnt it?

That, according to; This, as - Where have all the verbs gone? Do you talk to your neighbor this way? Hey Bob, Sams getting a new car... that, according to his wife... I hear Marge is going on a diet... this, as her waistline expands...

Torrential Rain - He aint heavy, hes torrential! Weather stories have their own set of overhyped terms, and this is one of the worst. If you cant find a more creative way to describe a storm, youre all wet.

Unanswered questions - Well, duh! Is there another kind of question? Once a question is answered, its not a question anymore!

Under Fire - In wartime, maybe. It is sheer exaggeration and silliness to refer to a troubled Congressman, indicted businessman or controversial mayor this way. If someone is criticizing a person or his ideas, spell it out. Save the ammo for the revolution.

Under Siege - When the Israelites surround ancient Jericho, you can call it a siege. But why must writers turn every political, economic, or social problem into Custers Last Stand?

Underwent Surgery - only if theyre hospitalized (see above). People HAVE surgery. Doctors OPERATE on them.

Unrest - UnCola. Un-Conversational. Unbelievable that people still use this word in news scripts, when theyd never, EVER use it at home or anywhere else. Angry hordes of citizens dont run unresting through the streets. They riot.

Vehicle - More Coptalk. Is it a car? A truck? A tricycle? Say so.

Went Terribly Wrong - Ask a typical TV watcher for a reaction to the vacation/bank robbery/shuttle launch that went terribly wrong. Folks hear this and think, oh boy, here we go again, more exaggeration. Is that what you want to communicate?

White Stuff - Is there some law against saying snow twice? If there were, the song would go, Let it Snow, Let it White Stuff... you get the idea.

White Supremacist - Putting aside its obviously non-conversational tone, white supremacist sounds too lofty. Its more than those lowlifes deserve. Most of them probably dont even know what supremacist means. Its also inherently racist. Somehow we never use supremacist without white before it. Violent radicals of different hues tend to be called separatists, as if no member of any non-white race would dare think in supreme terms.
Have been dreamed it must be superficially delicious if Curry and Udon eaten at home got together with.