Friday, August 21, 2009

How to write a news article

Here’s something very few people realize: Writing news stories isn’t particularly difficult. It does take practice and not everyone will be an expert but if you follow the guidelines below you should be able to create effective news items without too much stress.

The five “W”s and the “H”

This is the crux of all news – you need to know these things:

Who? What? Where? When? How?

Any good news story provides answers to each of these questions. You must drill these into your brain and they must become second nature.

For example, if you wish to cover a story about a local sports team entering a competition you will need to answer these questions:

Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are the supporters?

What sport do they play? What is the competition?

Where is the competition? Where the team is normally based?

When is the competition? How long they have been preparing?

Why are they entering this particular competition? It it’s relevant, why does the team exist at all?

How are they going to enter the competition? Do they need to fundraise? How much training and preparation is required? What will they need to do to win?

The Inverted Pyramid

This refers to the style of journalism, which places the most important facts at eh beginning, and works “down” from there. Ideally, the first paragraph should contain enough information to give the reader a good overview of the entire story. The rest of the article explains and expands on the beginning.

A good approach is to assume that the story might be cut off at any point due to space limitations. Does the story work if the editor only decides to include the first two paragraphs? If not, re-arrange it so that it does.

The same principle can apply to any type of medium.

More tips

It’s about people

News stories are all about how people are affected. In your sports story, you might spend some time focusing on one or more individuals, or on how the team morale is doing, or how the reporters are feeling.

Have an angle

Most stories can be presented using a particular angle. This is a standard technique and isn’t necessarily bad – it can help make the purpose of the story clear and give it focus.

Keep it Objective

You are completely impartial. If there is more than one side to the story, cover them all. Don’t use “I” and “me” unless you are quoting someone.

Don’t get flowery

Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Don’t use lots of heavily descriptive language. When you have finished, go through the entire story and try to remove any words which are not completely necessary.

Reporting boils down to three things:

  1. ACCURACY

As a reporter you have a lot of power. What you write can influence decisions, help from public opinions of people and contribute to the general attitude of your readers toward their life in general.

With that power comes responsibility that can’t be taken lightly. Get a fact wrong, misspell a name or omit a vital piece of information and you not only can distort the truth and misinform the public, but you also damage the credibility of the school paper. Without credibility, a newspaper is finished. Guard it carefully.

  1. CLARITY

Newspaper writing is not academic writing. We don’t use big words and long sentences to show our readers how smart we are. Newspaper readers are pressed for time. You have to give them the news quickly, concisely and without a lot of extra words or information they don’t need. Every story competes for a reader’s attention… against other stories, against the TV in the background, against every distraction you can think of.

  1. STYLE

Good writers are artists. Good news writers are, too. They can entertain, inspire, anger and educate. News stories don’t have to follow the old, worn-out, inverted pyramid format. Sure, you’;; still use it sometimes, particularly for important, breaking news on deadline. But look for opportunities to veer from the format into something more interesting. Never forget, though, that your number 1 objective is to tell people what they need to know – not to show them how much of a literary artist you are.

10 guidelines for clearer writing

1. One idea per sentence

No. Columbine University in Manhattan experienced the largest of recent school murder rampages last week and Dekalb University along with police are reacting to a rumor of violence at Dekalb University.

Yes. School officials and police are reacting quickly to a rumored threat of violence at Dekalb University.

The response follows last week’s school massacre in Manhattan.

2. Limit sentence length to 23-25 words. If you can’t read a sentence aloud without a breath, it’s too long.

No. After the announcement was made by President John Vladimir that he will be retiring early next year. Boey under his boarh authority created and ad that will find representatives.

Yes. President John Vladimir announced last month he will retire early next year. Boey has since created a temporary committee to choose a search committii.

3. S-V-O: Subject-Verb-Object. Right branching sentences (think of a track engine). Don’t delay meaning. Don’t use a lot of commas.

No. Mauger who worked as a bursar at De Paul University in Chicago prior to work at Beliot sain she missed the university environment.

Yes. Mauger was a bursar at Chicago’s De Paul University before Beliot job. She missed the university environment.

4. Use strong verbs and active voice

No. The poem will be read by me.

Yes. Rina will read the poem.

5. Reduce difficult words to their simplest terms. Don’t let bureaucrats dictate your word choices.

No. The search committee will be constructed with article of NIU.

Yes. NIU’s constitution dictates the search committee’s makeup.

6. Don’t back into sentence.

7. Don’t use more than three numbers in any one sentence.

8. Use no more than three prepositional phrases per sentence.

9. Choose the precise word

10. KISS (keep it simple, stupid)


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