Identification: Be complete to prevent misidentification

By Dick Thien
Chips Quinn Writing Coach

Identification serves three functions:

Through details, it humanizes the person in the story. "A woman" is so vague that readers fail to identify with the person. "A Lincoln woman" is more identifiable. "Betty M. Smith, 62, of 2044 South St." is one-of-a-kind.

It helps readers know if the person named Betty M. Smith is the Betty M. Smith they know (through street address, age, job title). Specifics also prevent misidentification.

It helps readers decide how much weight to put on that person's statements. Information on job title, past experience and the like helps define a speaker's expertise and self-interest.

You cannot be too precise and too complete in identifying people in stories. You can be too imprecise and incomplete. Therefore, take pains in getting ID information from sources.

You may identify by:

First name and middle initial (ALWAYS use full name the first time someone is mentioned).

Street address (if a resident in the city where the newspaper is published) or hometown.

• Age
• Occupation
• Title
• Place of employment
• Past achievements or mishaps
• Marital status

Decide which of the above fit the source and will help the reader understand and believe the story. It is best to check with your editors before going on the story to see what identification they think is necessary. When in doubt, get everything.

EXAMPLES:

(Traffic accident)
John Jones, 34, of 1711 Beverly Lane was injured Thursday when . . .

(Speech)
John Jones, chairman of the Lancaster County Democratic party, told the Rotary Club Thursday that ...

(Education feature)
John Jones, a sophomore in engineering at the University of Kansas, . .

Be precise. Do not say that Alfred Pagel is on the journalism faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Write that he is chairman of the news-editorial department. Be exact in giving job titles.

Be exact in listing occupations. (On that subject, a job is not a proper noun. So don't capitalize it.)

TRICKY TRIO

Burglar, Robber and Thief
To be a burglar, you have to enter a building with the idea of stealing something. You don't necessarily have to use force to get in, but you must seek to enter unobserved. Someone who enters a store during business hours to shoplift items is not a burglar. Think of burglaries as crimes against property.
EXAMPLE: Burglars broke into the James Terrill home at 201 N. First St. Thursday night.

To be a robber, you have to directly confront people and use force or threat to take their valuables. Think of robberies as crimes against people.
EXAMPLE: He was robbed by a man carrying a gun.

Note: The Associated Press Stylebook also allows for a wider definition -- to plunder or rifle -- that would make robbery applicable even if a person were not involved or threatened. The AP example: His house was robbed while he was away.

To be a thief, you need to take something valuable, but not through confrontation or through illegal entry. Thieves steal bicycles and unlooked-after backpacks.
EXAMPLE: The thief took seven books from the library.

Their, There and They're

Because of carelessness, these three are intermingled regularly. "Their" is the possessive pronoun.
EXAMPLE: She went to their house.

"There" is an adverb of place or a filler word having no concrete meaning.
EXAMPLE: Put the book there (adverb of place). There were dishes on the table (filler word).

"They're" is a contraction for they are. AP warns against using contractions at all. Though there is widespread use of simple contractions, such as don't and won't, most editors find they're too informal for news writing.
EXAMPLE: They're all out of work.

USAGE TRICKS AND TRAPS

Split Infinitives

An infinitive is a verb with a "to" in front of it. Though many usage experts argue that the don't-split rule is neither necessary nor practical, 87 percent of editors polled by Indiana University said they wanted their infinitives unsplit. To please those editors, then, avoid putting an adverb between the "to" and its verb. (The best rule: Follow your ear. If it sounds better split, split it.)

NOT: I want the reader to clearly understand this.

BUT: I want the reader to understand this clearly. (Better yet, delete the "clearly.")

Imply and Infer

A writer implies a meaning, and from that readers infer what they think the writer means.
EXAMPLES: He implied that I was cheating. From what you say, I infer that you were not.

SPELLING WORDS

a lot (always two words)
canceled
judgment
amendment

About the column

Write It Right is updated regularly. Have a suggestion for a future column, contact Dick Thien.

Read Dick Thien's biography.

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