The non-information words (writing)

For reporters and copy editors

1. Warming up session(30 minutes)
   
   
• Pick a group of six or eight journalists and get them to interview each other in pairs, for about ten minutes.
  
• Ask them to write a brief text introducing their peers.
• Copy and share the texts.
  
  
2. Defining the indefinable session(30 minutes)

• Select from the texts vague, relative, imprecise words (such as "young", "tall", "typical Texan accent", "very soon", "cold day", "many times", "serious look" etc.).
• Make a list of them --eight or ten will make the point, but try to have at least one word from each text.
  
• Give each journalist small pieces of blank paper, as many as the number of words listed. Now ask them to write down what "young" means -- they have to be the most specific they can, such as "less than four years", "less than one year". Make a pile of the answers and give them the second word -- describe what "tall" means --, then the third, then the fourth...
  
• They will get the point as soon as you begin, but it is a lot of fun to read the answers, and to compare them with the real information (for instance, a reporter wrote that his friend had "very soon" decided to be a journalist. Guesses about what "very soon" means went from "at 5 years old" to "at 16 years old". (The actual decision was made at age 18).