Abstract
Given the growing international enrollment at American universities, many journalism students will recognize themselves in the pages of American English for World Media. Nottle draws on her experiences at City University of New York as an English writing coach for the Graduate Journalism Program’s international students to prepare a language guide for nonnative English-speaking journalists and those who teach them.
In Chapter 1, Nottle provides background for the values and expectations of American news media so those from different cultures will have a basis for understanding them. The chapter touches on classic values such as the constitutionally protected freedom of speech, as well as on contemporary trends like the use of social media in journalism.
Chapter 2 demonstrates the varied format of Nottle’s book. Instead of following a narrative flow, the chapter features dictionary-style entries explaining terms from American newsrooms like inverted pyramid and copy. American reporters may understand less familiar terms like kill a story from context, but international students could be left wondering what’s been said. Nottle’s book provides the answers.
In Chapter 3, Nottle explains that writing for American media is not only about using the English language but also about understanding journalism processes like pitch-writing, scheduling interviews, and meeting deadlines. Nottle wrote in an earlier chapter that students who know reasons behind grammar rules are more likely to remember them. Her explanation of the cultural bases for journalism practices makes the same learning possible in this area.
In Chapter 4, Nottle notes that English as second language (ESL) journalists must know the grammar of questions to ask them in ways that sources will understand. She also points out how carryovers from native languages can shape questions, such as the use by some Spanish speakers of no instead of not when asking something in English. Moreover, Nottle writes that journalists can use follow-up questions in interviews to not only elicit additional information but also check basic understanding of answers.
In Chapter 5, Nottle addresses the challenges of recording quotations in a foreign language. Journalists fluent in English will still be thrown by accents, so Nottle prescribes having students listen to YouTube videos to record quotes spoken with accents like the ones they’re learning and then checking the results. Journalism educators can use exercises like these in their own classrooms.
In Chapter 6, Nottle crosses from the challenge of written to spoken English. Explanations of how words group together in phrases and how to match speech registers with situations will help international students speak intelligible English and understand what’s spoken to them. Building on what comes before it, Chapter 7 alphabetically lists common pronunciation problems for international journalism students and strategies for overcoming them.
Chapter 8 bursts with examples of word-choice errors common to international students such as confusing words with the same first and last letters like chick and cheek. Nottle suggests strategies for building vocabulary such as recognizing root words that come from other languages, breaking words into parts and seeing how they work together, and recognizing how words change forms to create word families. Meanwhile, the one-sentence, parenthetical explanations of idioms sprinkled throughout the book culminate in Chapter 9, a guide to American idioms. In this chapter, Nottle incorporates more than 30 idioms into nine paragraphs without interrupting the narrative flow. Her writing makes not only this chapter, but also the whole book, readable.
In Chapter 10, Nottle identifies 20 grammar points that consistently reemerge in student writing. The chapter covers points in alphabetical order including the differences between active and passive verbs and when to use each, the importance of making pronouns match antecedents, and when and how to use articles like a, an, and the, something natural for native speakers but confusing for ESL students.
Chapter 11 provides a mini style guide with an alphabetical listing of rules mostly related to word usage. It answers such questions as whether to use aggravate or irritate, due to or because of, real estate agent or Realtor, and 39 similar entries. As Nottle writes, a news organization’s style guide will be far more comprehensive, but this list can be useful nonetheless.
The first three pages of Chapter 12 provide context for what follows—another alphabetical list of terms, this time related to new media. Nottle points out that international journalists will need this to decipher “a whole new vocabulary of jargon—half journalistic, half techie” (p. 271). Aggregator, app, clickbait, and microblog are explained in turn. The longest entries may be 25 lines but most are about five lines each.
In Chapter 13, Nottle points out that international students pursuing careers in public relations need the lessons in this book as badly as those studying journalism. The specific content of the chapter, however, resembles the public relations chapters of most journalism textbooks.
Chapter 14 provides resources international journalists can use to improve their English independently. Nottle names specific titles like Strunk and White’s Elements of Style as well as online resources like Learn English Online and Dave’s ESL Café. Nottle also suggests radio programs, films, and television to get used to hearing American varieties of spoken English.
In all, Nottle has written a book that will be useful in journalism classrooms either as a main text if there are many international students, or as a supplementary text if there are a few. At very least, this book belongs in libraries and journalism resource centers at all American universities.