Mslexia

Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk

Essentials

JOURNALISTS' JARGON

Body copy: the main text of the feature

Colour piece: a feature characterised by description of people, surroundings, sounds, smells etc, plus reported speech, mood, atmosphere. As close to creative writing as journalism gets

Cuttings: evidence that you can write, in the form of published work

Deadline: the date an editor will give you to file your copy by

File (verb): to send your copy to the editor

Head/ headline: that big, bold, clever statement that draws readers in

Hook: an event, such as a demonstration, a book release or the opening of an exhibition, that is the premise for your feature being written

Kill Fee: pre-negotiated amount paid to the author of an article which has been assigned but not slated for publication

Lead-in time: how long before publication editors need content

NIB: stands for ‘News in Brief’. A short news piece often part of a column of other news items

Pitch (verb): to offer a feature to the publication of your choice (see Synopsis)

Press day/ going to press: the final deadline for all the pages to be sent to the printer (also the day when no-one will want to speak to prospective journalists)

Proof (verb): the final read-through of a piece before it goes to press

Pullquote: encouragement to dedicate your valuable time to reading the feature, often in the form of a quote, picked out in a different, bigger font

Standfirst/stand/sell: the introductory paragraph, bigger than the rest of the text, that gives the reader an enticing preview of what they’re about to read

Sub (sub-edit): what will happen to a feature between a commission and its appearance on page – i.e. it will be fact- and spell-checked and made to
read beautifully

Synopsis: what freelancers send editors, detailing the content and direction of a proposed feature

Think/ opinion piece: largely your own opinion about an issue of the day, but usually with a topical hook and backed up with facts and research – e.g. why all film stars are ego-maniacs, to appear the week of the Oscars

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