Writing News Articles

This is NOT your typical English class We don’t write 5 paragraph essays We don’t start our writing with silly questions or hypothetical statements. What is journey? Imagine a world without conflict. We don’t wait to give our facts until you read further. We throw them at our readers in our first sentence!

The  of a news article: 5Ws and 1H Who: people involved in event What: events that happened Where: location of event When: time & date of event Why: reasons why event occurred How: important details of event

Lead First sentence (or two) of a news article. Stands as its own paragraph. Contains as many of the 5Ws and 1H as necessary to give important information to your readers. Developed because of the telegraph (needed to get information across quickly). This is your chance to grab readers’ attention!

Inverted pyramid format Shows the “shape” of a news article. Starts with broad statements in the lead (in general terms, what happened?) As you read further, more specific details are given. Thus, the writer narrows his/her focus The bottom of the article contains the least important information (just in case your layout editor needs to cut down the article- you don’t want to lose important info!)

Stick to the facts News articles are free from bias and opinion Present the facts- educate your reader about your topic- and let your reader make up his/her own opinion