Throw Out Your Thesaurus

Or at least take it home. There's no reason to have one in the newsroom. You shouldn't be afraid to use the same word twice in a story. It's how people talk and it's what your scripts should sound like when they're read aloud.

Some examples...

When talking about the writer's strike, using "writer" in the lead but then in the next graph, deciding to go with "scribe."

And, my personal favorite and oft mentioned... writing "white stuff" when we all know it's snow.

Ditto "blaze" for fire.

With rare exceptions, if words aren't used in normal conversation, they shouldn't be in your scripts.