Newspaper Articles
Elements Headline: A title describing the event which catches the reader’s attention. Byline: tells who wrote the story Lead Paragraph: This is the first paragraph or sentence of the article and it states the 5W’s (who, what, when, where, why) and how. Most news reports follow this sequence: when, who, what, where. Example: Yesterday, three students from St. Success in Toronto rescued a cat that was stuck in a tree.
Explanation: This section can be one or more paragraphs and it elaborates on the lead. This is where you should give a clear explanation of how and why it happened. Include examples and direct and indirect quotations from those who are interviewed. Additional Information: This has nonessential information and can be easily edited back.
Example Headline: High flying escape ends in death Byline: By Robin Sloan Lead: Icarus, son of the famous inventor, Daedalus, plunged into the Aegean Sea and drowned while attempting to escape from the island of Crete early yesterday afternoon. His body has yet to be recovered. Explanation: Icarus and his father had made wings from wax and bird feathers they had collected over the years while imprisoned on the island of Crete. They attached the homemade wings to their arms and, using a flapping motion, lifted off from the island shortly before noon.While making their escape, Icarus flew too close to the sun. As a result, the heat melted the wax on his wings which caused the feathers to drop off. The wings collapsed and Icarus fell into the sea and drowned. Daedalus, sobbing from the distant shore where he had landed safely, said, “My last words to Icarus before we left the island was to stay close and not fly too high! He just didn’t listen! Why didn’t he listen to me? Additional Information: ” Daedalus and Icarus had been held prisoner by King Minos on the island of Crete, and had been forced to build a labyrinth at the palace of Knossos. It was known to be the most difficult maze in the world to navigate successfully.
When writing a news article you need to be balanced and objective, so don’t express your opinion on the topic. You can express the opinion of those that you interview using quotations. Write in the third person. Newspaper articles are broken into columns which help to maintain readers’ attention. Columns turn an otherwise large text into manageable chunks. Try to use an active voice when writing. This is how we usually speak with the object receiving the action of the verb. s(Cats) v(eat) o(fish) or “neighbours helped” instead of “help was received by neighbours”. Try to keep your sentences short and your word choices simple.
Tell the most important or unique thing about your article in the headline. This acts as your “hook” Avoid wordiness. In newspapers space is often an issue, so try to avoid unnecessary words. When quoting in your article use the following format "Quoted text," Full name, Organization (title), said. Images should include captions which explain what the image is. Sources should be listed if available and italicized. When you write the OSSLT you will have to develop a news article based on a picture and headline. Make sure to refer back to the picture in your writing.