Writing news, reporting styles and manipulating perceptions 1

Focus Change in Reporting and Names for Punctuation

1. FRAMING
Compare sentences "A" and "B". They are typically uttered by students.
A.- "I passed the exam."
B.- "They flunked me."
If the person speaking is a professor, we may find the variations in "C" and "D".
C.- "You passed the exam."
D.- "You flunked the exam."
The pairs A-C and B-D present the situations from a different perspective even though they
refer to the same reality.
Do responsibilities about success/failure change? Can that lead to different
interpretations of the situation?i

A Spanish jam brand, used to advertise its products as follows:

 "No other brand offers more fruit in its jams!"

According to the previous statement, which brand uses more fruit to produce its jams?
(This is a trick question, think before you answerii)
These are examples of a strategy used in reporting data (news, journal articles, debates,
etc.) which chooses to present information in a way that hides some important
information. This strategy is known as framing (Goffman, 1974). Other basic examples of
common use in everyday language are the following:
 Your proposal is not acceptable. (Avoids justification, so there is no room for
debate).
 Every salesperson lies to make more money on a sale. (The
generalisation presents the statement as a fact without exceptions).
 We are letting you go. (Presents the statement as an option instead of the
non-optional, real meaning: "You are fired.").
In this video clip https://youtu.be/pGJH_-S_MGs from the series "Yes Minister" (1980-1984),
Sir Humphrey dictates a message in such a way that no member from the government can
be blamed of not doing anything in relation to an embarassing issue.

How does Sir Humphrey frame the information to achieve this result?
___________________________________________________________

The table below presents some standard language in three industries. For each case which
is the standard phrasing used? A or B?iii

CONTEXT1 Word Group A Word Group B

Providing information to "Your destination" "Your final destination"
airplane passengers "Departure from gate 64" "Departure from terminal 1"
"our used car variety" "our choice of pre-owned
"second-hand cars are an cars"
Selling used cars economic approach to "these almost brand new cars
owning high range cars" have an unbeatable price"
Information on Technology "our services provide a fast "the cost of our services will
sales return investment" pay for itself in a short time"

The research of psychologists (Kahneman, 2011; Kahneman & Tversky, 1984; and Tversky &
Kahneman, 1974) provides examples of how this technique can be used to influence more

1
The exercise is based on the research reported by Cialdini (2016: 109).

Dept. Lingüística Aplicada a la Ciencia y la Tecnología  UPM  CURSO PROFS. B2 a C1  Ismael Arinas Pellón
Writing news, reporting styles and manipulating perceptions 2

complex decisions. For example, "[c]onsider, for example, a situation in which an individual is
forced to choose between an 85% chance to lose $1,000 (with a 15% chance to lose nothing) and
a sure loss of $800" (Kahneman & Tverski, 1984: 342).
Which option would you choose? (don't calculate, just choose what your gut says)iv
____________________________________________________________________________
According to Kahneman & Tverski (1984), most people are risk-averse and do not make
choices purely based on net gains or losses, but on gains or losses in relation to status quo
or relative improvement over present status. Take a look at the following two options
presented to several group of test volunteers:
1. "Would you accept a gamble that offers a 10% chance to win $95 and a 90%
chance to lose $5?" Or
2. "Would you pay $5 to participate in a lottery that offers a 10% chance to win
$100 and a 90% chance to win nothing?"
Kahneman assures that test participants consistently show a strong preference for the
second option (Kahneman, 2011: 364). The key to this preference, when both options lead
to the same results, is the language used: the first example presents the possibility of a loss
and the second one shows everything as a winning context. In the references (Both Cialdini
and Kahneman), you can find many more examples of framing applied to decisions where
risk was involved among professionals and lay people.
Go to Moodle for an exercise on framing.

2. CITATION STYLES FOR IN-TEXT QUOTATIONS

In relation to the discrepancies that arose in class regarding the position of punctuation
marks in direct quotations, the following list the use of commas within the 5 most wide-
spread academic standards:
 VANCOUVER2 (common in science and medicine).- to introduce literal citations into
the text using this standard, you use no commas before the citation and structural
punctuation is outside the quotation marks.
 IEEE3 (common in engineering).- to introduce literal citations into the text using this
standard, you use no commas before the citation and structural punctuation is
outside the quotation marks.
 APA4 (common in social sciences, psychology and humanities).- commas and
periods are inside quotation marks even when they are structuring the text.
 MLA5 (common in linguistics and other humanities).- commas and periods are inside
quotation marks even when they are structuring the text.
 CHICAGO (common in school papers, newspapers, essays and novels).- commas and
periods are inside quotation marks even when they are structuring the text.

According to the COBUILD English Grammar (2017: 26) the punctuation of quotes is inside
quotation marks. But several web pages6 indicate that the U.S. standard incorporates
periods and commas within the quotation marks and the British standard keeps them
outside when they are used to structure the text. As you can see, it is a matter of debate.
Luckily, for your publications, you are always instructed to follow a specific standard.

2
https://guides.lib.monash.edu/ld.php?content_id=14570618
3
http://libraryguides.vu.edu.au/ieeereferencing/gettingstarted go to "How to use quotes in IEEE".
4
https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/APA-In-text or https://pitt.libguides.com/citationhelp/APA
5
https://guides.lib.monash.edu/c.php?g=219786&p=4089974
6
https://eslforums.com/punctuation-marks/ https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/british-versus-american-
style.html and https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/quotation-marks.html for example.

Dept. Lingüística Aplicada a la Ciencia y la Tecnología  UPM  CURSO PROFS. B2 a C1  Ismael Arinas Pellón
Writing news, reporting styles and manipulating perceptions 3

3. NAMING PUNCTUATION MARKS

Before actually looking at the names, let's look at some differences between British
(Australia and New Zealand tend to follow it) and U.S. (Canada tends to follow this one)
designations in Table 1 below. Pay attention to what it says for the position of quotation
marks in relation to periods and commas.

British English American English7

The " . " symbol is called A full stop a period
The " ! " symbol is called an exclamation mark an exclamation point
The " ( ) " symbols are brackets parentheses
called
The " [ ] " symbols are square brackets brackets
called
The " { } " symbols are braces curly brackets
The position of quotation A derisory name is also A derisory name is also
marks known as "byname". known as "happiness."
The punctuation for Dr, Mr, Mrs, St, Rd, Ct Dr., Mr., Mrs., St., Rd., Ct.
abbreviations

Figure 1: Some names for punctuation marks in English

Table 1: Different names for punctuation marks in British and American English

COMMA (,), PERIOD (.), SEMICOLON (;), COLON (:), ELLIPSIS (...), QUESTION MARK (?),
EXCLAMATION MARK (!), DASH (EN-DASH / EM-DASH) (-- / ---)8, HYPHEN (-), UNDERSCORE
(_) PARENTHESES ( ), BRACKETS [ ], BRACES { }, APOSTROPHE ( ' ), QUOTATION MARKS
(SINGLE / DOUBLE '...' / "..."), STROKE / SLASH ( / )

7
Information obtained from https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/what/fourteen-punctuation-
marks.html
8
http://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE-Editorial-Style-Manual.pdf see page
19 of the manual.

Dept. Lingüística Aplicada a la Ciencia y la Tecnología  UPM  CURSO PROFS. B2 a C1  Ismael Arinas Pellón
Writing news, reporting styles and manipulating perceptions 4

4. ISSUES MENTIONED IN THE LAST CLASS

The effects of corruption on engineering projects, international business agreements, and
even the status quo of whole countries has led to the creation of the ISO 37001 ANTI-
BRIBERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS. The standard was first published in October 2016 and
this PDF brochure provides a quick introduction to its basics.
We also mentioned the influence of Physics in cooking (Actually, quite some Chemistry is
involved too). The following are books and videos where this is exemplified:
Blumenthal, Heston (2011) Heston Blumenthal at Home. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Blumenthal, Heston (2006) In Search of Perfection. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Blumenthal, Heston & Ross, Peter (2012). The Curious Cookbook : Viper Soup, Badger Ham,
Stewed Sparrows & 100 More Historic Recipes. New Jersey: Mark Batty Publisher.
Brenner, Michael; Soerensen, Pia; Weitz, David (Forthcoming 2020). Science and Cooking:
Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine. New York: WW Norton & Co.
Briscione, James & Parkhurst, Brooke (2018). Flavor Matrix: The Art and Science of Pairing
Common Ingredients to Create Extraordinary Dishes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company.
Campbell, John (2010) Formulas for Flavour : How to cook restaurant dishes at home. London:
Octopus Publishing Group.
Crosby, Guy (ed.) (2012) The Science Of Good Cooking. America's Test Kitchen.
Farrimond, Stuart (2017). The Science of Cooking : Every Question Answered to Perfect Your
Cooking. Ñew York: DK Publishing.
Field, Simon Quellen (2011) Culinary Reactions. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.
Lavelle, Christophe; This, Herve; Kelly, Alan L.; & Burke, Roisin (eds.) (Forthcoming in 2021).
Handbook of Molecular Gastronomy : Scientific Foundations and Culinary Applications.
CRC Press Inc from Taylor & Francis Inc.
Lopez-alt, J. Kenji (2015) The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. New York:
WW Norton & Co.
Mans, Claudi (2019) The Science of Cooking : A Quick Immersion. Tibidabo Publishing, Inc.
McGee, Harold (2011). McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science,
History and Culture. HODDER & STOUGHTON.
Spence, Charles (2018). Gastrophysics : The New Science of Eating. London: Penguin Books
Ltd.
Spence, Charles & Piqueras-Fiszman, Betina (2014). The Perfect Meal : The Multisensory
Science of Food and Dining. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Yachao,Pan (2019) Mathematical Modelling of the Cooking Process of Offal : in a Batch Dry
Rendering Cooker. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MHWTloDQDU Magic mushroom starter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAZGQql9Dh4 How To Cook Like Heston - Chicken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZch1skigBE Mojito Molecular Gastronomy
https://bit.ly/2TRrslB Microwave Sponge Cake
https://bit.ly/2TzsPGL Tapas Molecular Bar in Japan
https://bit.ly/3aAeShl 9 Scientific Cooking Techniques
https://bit.ly/337pq4X The physics of baking
https://bit.ly/2xnjNnx Time and temperature in cooking
https://bit.ly/2VUw4Kh Physics in the kitchen

REFERENCES
Cialdini, Robert (2016). Pre-Suasion: a Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade.
London: Random House Books.
COBUILD (2017). COBUILD English Grammar. Glasgow: Harper Collins.

Dept. Lingüística Aplicada a la Ciencia y la Tecnología  UPM  CURSO PROFS. B2 a C1  Ismael Arinas Pellón
Writing news, reporting styles and manipulating perceptions 5

Goffman, Erving (1974). Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kahneman, Daniel (2011). Thinking Fast and Slow. London: Penguin Books.
Kahneman, Daniel & Tversky, Amos (1984). Choices, Values and Frames in American
Psychologist, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 341-350.
Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel (1974). Judgement under Uncertainty: Heuristics and
Biases in Science, New Series, Vol. 185, No. 4157.
i
When the students say "I passed" the merit is theirs; when they say "they flunked me" the blame is
for those who corrected the exams. Basically, the same reality can be presented from different
points of view and the perceptions of the event change depending on what frame has been
heard/read. Some implications have been exposed in Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon; this film has
inspired the label "Rashomon Effect" applied for example to describe the reliability of witnesses in
trials. You can read the first paragraphs of this article
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242742606_The_Rashomon_Effect for more details on
what the Rashomon Effect is. But implications of the Rashomon Effect reach Bayesian inferencing
tools as this other paper shows:
https://www.academia.edu/38821367/_Rashomon_effect_co_eventum_mechanistic_Bayesian_great
_and_little_theorems_in_forensics
ii
According to the legislation, https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2003-13473 (for a
translation into English, take a look at page nine of https://bit.ly/2x3SU7G), each product (fruit jelly,
marmalade, fruit jam) must contain a minimum amount of fruit and no brand is marketing their
products with more fruit than that stipulated by the law. In summary, the question in the ad was not
stating that their brand was offering more, but it was framing the message so it suggested just that.
iii
airplanes A (to avoid associations with death); used cars B (to avoid the negative perception of
used or second-hand); IT A (an investment implies an expected return, a cost implies a permanent
loss of money).
iv
Research indicates that most people choose to lose $800

Dept. Lingüística Aplicada a la Ciencia y la Tecnología  UPM  CURSO PROFS. B2 a C1  Ismael Arinas Pellón