News Writing News writing is also called journalistic writing.

What is News? O Newsworthiness is the news value of something O Some of the factors that help determine the newsworthiness are timeliness, proximity or location, prominence, importance or significance, human interest, innovative or unusual, conflict and money.

Timeliness O Timeliness is when an event/activity happened or when it will happen and implies immediacy or nearness to the present

Proximity or location O Proximity refers to how close physically or psychologically the news story’s content is to the audience. O The story written has to hit close to home.

Prominence O Prominence refers to the importance of the event or person. O Big names make big news.

Importance or Significance O The greater the effect and the larger the number of people impacted by your news story the more likely it is that your story is news.

Human Interest O News stories that have a strong appeal to human emotions are more newsworthy

Innovative or unusual O If the news story features something different, unusual or innovative, it carries news value.

Conflict O A story that shows struggles, a person versus the environment, a person versus another person, is newsworthy.

Money O Stories about financial issues are always newsworthy.

News Writing O News writing is not providing a chronological account of something that happened O Newswriting is not about springing the important news at the end of the story O News writing is not about stringing lots of quotes into the story

News Writing O News writing is finding out… O Who said it? Who is it about? O What happened? O When did it happen? O Where did it happen? O Why is it important? O How did it happen?

Good News Writing O Uses short sentences O Uses short words O Uses short paragraphs O Eliminates wordiness O Avoids jargon or technical language O Comes to the point quickly O Uses direct quotes to bring life to the story

Writing News Stories O Journalistic writing should always be accurate, brief, and clear O Make sure names are spelled correctly, identifications made properly O Information from more than one source adds accuracy. O Accuracy is the reporters obligation to the reader.

Writing News Stories O Cut unnecessary words. Stories should be brief. O Sentences should be 25 words or less. O Paragraphs should be 1-3 sentences. O Eliminate jargon from stories O Jargon is technical language O Don’t try to impress reader

Writing News Stories O Good news stories have O Inverted pyramid structure O Five W’s and H O Leads O Impersonal Reporting O Quotes

Inverted Pyramid Structure O Most commonly used structure for news writing O Presents the most important information first O Less important information is presented in descending order

Inverted Pyramid Structure LEAD: The key to the story. Includes the most important of the 5 W’s and H. Secondary Information: Vital statistics and description Background Information: Incidents leading up to or following the event. Additional Information

Five W’s and H O Five W’s and H are the key components of any news stories. O Begin the story with the most important O Usually the most important is the WHAT or WHO

Lead Paragraph O The lead paragraph grabs the readers attention and answers the most important of the five W’s and H. O A good lead generally contains three of the five W’s and H. O One mistake writers make is putting too much in a lead. O The lead should be no more than 25 words.

Summary Lead O The summary lead is the most common news style lead in newspapers. O The basic information is up front.

Question Lead O Not used very often. O If the reader does not care about the answer to the question they will not read the article.

Quotation Lead O A direct quote used in the first paragraph is a quotation lead. O Not used unless there is something memorable or unusual to get the attention of the reader.

Speaker-Spoke Lead O Identifies that someone spoke or will speak at an event. O This should only be used if the speaker is someone important or well known.

First Person Lead O Puts the writer in the story. O Sometimes acceptable in magazines but not newspapers

Impersonal Reporter O Reporters should be transparent in their writing O Reporters should not include I, Me, We, Our, My, Us O Reporters should not include opinion O Using opinion makes the article an editorial, not news

Print News Writing Techniques O Short sentences are a must, words O Short paragraphs- no more than 3 sentences O Third person- always write in third person O Nouns and verbs- place emphasis on nouns and verbs O Simple writing- use simple words and simple sentences

Print News Writing Techniques O Jargon and clichés- avoid them. O Transitions- tie together what you have written. Sentences should logically follow each other.