Newspapers are read every day by millions of people. Mostly, newspapers should be straight forward, to the point and easily understandable. No bias or opinion should be included in news stories and the vocabulary should be simple.
The first sentence of an article should be between 20 - 25 words and contain all the important information; who, what, when, where and why. Try and start the first sentence with a person - news, after all, is about people.
There should be roughly four paragraphs in a news story. Most paragraphs are only a sentence long.
For instance, this paragraph is a simple sentence.
That's what keeps the reader engaged; short, sharp paragraphs.
The further down in a story, the less important the information is. None of the writer's opinion should be included, however, quotes can be useful. These are usually included in last paragraph as opinion is the least important. You should only include quotes if they add something to the story, don't use a quote that reiterates what you have just written.
THINGS TO NEVER DO WHEN WRITING NEWS STORIES
The first sentence of an article should be between 20 - 25 words and contain all the important information; who, what, when, where and why. Try and start the first sentence with a person - news, after all, is about people.
There should be roughly four paragraphs in a news story. Most paragraphs are only a sentence long.
For instance, this paragraph is a simple sentence.
That's what keeps the reader engaged; short, sharp paragraphs.
The further down in a story, the less important the information is. None of the writer's opinion should be included, however, quotes can be useful. These are usually included in last paragraph as opinion is the least important. You should only include quotes if they add something to the story, don't use a quote that reiterates what you have just written.
THINGS TO NEVER DO WHEN WRITING NEWS STORIES
- Being passive
- Using words to imply you know who's fault it is
- Starting with a question
- Describing the news as something i.e. good/bad/shocking
THINGS TO AVOID WHEN WRITING NEWS STORIES
- Using basic words such as 'welcome'
- Using adjectives
- Using colloquialisms and connectives
- Using drop introductions
- Using words such as 'claim' which imply elements of doubt
- Typical cliches
Seems like some news organizations in the US take this list and do the opposite.
ReplyDeleteHaha, English journalism and American journalism is very different!
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ReplyDeleteOops--I was trying to change my comment authentication to Wordpress but I guess that won't work, oh well...
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So this has me wondering: if you're not allowed to use words that imply doubt, how do you report on something that is currently ongoing? For example, if there is a murder investigation, the authorities may be making certain claims about the suspect's whereabouts or motives, etc.
It doesn't seem to make sense not to report this just because it may turn out to be untrue. Admitting the possibility that the details may change would make a publication more trustworthy to me, not less.