Sometimes I do like wordiness - Blog 4 - Kelley Sibley

If you've ever had to research criticisms, you know the differences between journalistic and academic writing are pretty clear. Critical and academic essays, whether they're about literature, film, or art, are written not only to explain something, but also to sound pleasant. This, of course, is different from the "facts, facts, facts" of journalism. Sure there are similar rules between the two, like don't begin paragraphs with coordinating conjunctions, and don't editorialize your work...but there's something extremely distinctive in the way each flows. (Like right there, I couldn't use "editorialize" in journalism...no ize!) I've always enjoyed writing papers for English because I like the process of creating something that sounds poetic and well...interesting. Not that journalistic writing can't be engaging, but it would be simply outrageous for a journalist to write like long wordy sentences. That's not what journalism is. It's squeezing in facts in as little words as possible, that way readers don't have to toil through "the fluff." I guess it isn't the learning and using of the rules in Arnold and the AP Stylebook that's difficult for me, it's trying to write facts and only facts.