© boardworks ltd 2003 1 of 29 writing newspaper articles this icon indicates that detailed...

© Boardworks Ltd 20031 of 29

Writing Newspaper Articles

This icon indicates that detailed teacher’s notes are available in the Notes Page.

For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation.

This icon indicates the slide contains activities created in Flash. These activities are not editable.


The first newspapers were all called broadsheets, because they used large, wide sheets of paper for their pages. Today, newspapers come in different shapes, sizes and styles. Some are broadsheets and some are what is known as tabloids. These are smaller and squarer in shape than the broadsheet papers.

These two types of paper have quite different written styles. Your style, material and layout will be affected by the kind of paper you are writing for.

Types of newspapers

Do you know what the two main types of newspaper are called?


Types of newspapers


What do you think is the most important difference between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers? What other differences are there?

Are free newspapers a different type of paper from the others, or is the only difference the cost?

What is the main difference between national and local papers? Are there any other differences?

Can one and should one say that any particular type of newspaper is “better” than any other?

Discussion topics


Looking at headlines


At its best, a headline should sum up the whole article, grab the attention of potential buyers and be easily remembered. A pun* or some alliteration** can make it even more effective.

* a play on words ** words starting with the same letter


What makes the perfect headline?

What sort of newspaper is this?


Look at these two headlines and decide what it is about each one that makes it tabloid or broadsheet in style.

Outrageous! They’re Holding Us Ransom!

French Lorry Drivers Blockade Ports

When you have completed your analysis, compare your findings with the details given on the next two slides.



French Lorry Drivers Blockade Ports

a simple statement of fact

no emotion

formal language

no exclamation marks

Conclusion: broadsheet headline



Outrageous! They’re Holding Us Ransom!

emotional response

use of contracted form (They’re)

use of exclamation marks

no indication of what the story is

Conclusion: tabloid headline



Discussion Activity

How much can headlines tell you?

Consider the two headlines which you have just analysed. How are the differences in the headlines likely to be reflected in the papers’ approach to what is actually the same story?



ActivityTurn the following imaginary news items into TWO headlines each: one in tabloid style and one in broadsheet style.

* crippling pain and sometimes paralysis and blindness experienced by some soldiers who served in the Gulf War.


Global warming is proved to be a fact and it has already started.

Details have just been declassified by the Ministry of Defence which show that so-called “Gulf War syndrome”* could well have been caused by chemicals which were used by both sides during the conflict.


All articles have common features like:

a headline

picture(s) with captions

interviews/comments from people involved

an expert opinion

sub-headings.

What does an article need?

Can you think of any more?


You are now going to work through the various stages necessary to create a finished newspaper article. You will be working from a fictional set of facts which come from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.

Claribel the daughter of King Alonso of Naples has just married

the king of Tunis.

At her wedding in Tunis were:

her father

her brother Ferdinand

her father’s brother Sebastian

Gonzalo (Alonso’s adviser)

Antonio (Duke of Milan)

Neapolitan and Milanese nobility and their servants.

Writing an article

The background:


Writing an article

The events:

On the way home from Tunis, a storm blows up in the Mediterranean and King Alonso’s ship is sunk.

The other ships in the fleet see the ship go down, but cannot find any survivors when they try to go to the rescue.


As a result of this event, there is no direct heir to the throne of Naples.

Writing an article

Sadly, the fleet sails on to Naples where the bad news has to be broken: the king, the heir to the throne and most of the senior councillors of Naples have been drowned, as well as the Duke of Milan and a large part of the nobility of both Naples and Milan. In addition, the ship had a crew of seventy Neapolitan sailors, all of whom are lost.


You are responsible for the front page of Naples Today, the city’s main newspaper. It is the evening of June 23rd 1598 and a rumour has reached your office that the fleet has just returned without the king’s ship.

This is the biggest thing to happen in Naples for years and you want it on the front page of tomorrow’s paper. Individual Activity

While you wait for your reporter to run to the docks to get more details, you start work on a dramatic headline for tomorrow’s paper.

Try out several different ways of approaching the tragedy, including at least one tabloid style headline and one broadsheet style headline.

Writing an article


Imagine you are the reporter for Naples Today. You have been sent to the docks to gather enough information to write a dramatic article for tomorrow’s paper.

Make a list of the people whom you would like to interview for your research. Remember to include as wide a range of experiences as possible.

Individual Activity

Your list should include:

someone who saw the fleet return

someone senior from the fleet (e.g. a captain)

a relative of one of the drowned sailors

a political expert

a court spokesperson.

Writing an article


Each taking the other’s list of people to be interviewed, prepare in note form a story for each of them. Do not write out the story in full. Do not discuss the details with your partner.

Remember to think about what you saw, what you have heard, what you think and what you feel.

As the journalist, prepare questions which you wish to ask your chosen people. Aim for five or six questions each - some may be the same for everyone, of course! Again, do not tell your partner what you are going to ask.

Take it in turns to interview each other, making notes when you are the journalist.

Writing an article

Paired Activities


Paired ActivityYou now have a list of possible headlines and two sets of interviews which give you an idea of what happened and what people think about it. Imagine that you are the editor and journalist. Decide on the style of your newspaper’s approach to the story and choose a headline for tomorrow’s early edition.

Now that you have that, you need to think about the layout of your front page.

Writing an article


name of paper

headline

date

picture

columns

Can you think of anything else a newspaper front page might have?

price

sub headings

The front page


Decide on the layout of the early edition of Naples Today on June 24th 1598. Remember to give your paper a date and a price as well as a headline.

With the layout fixed all that remains is to write the article. However, you need to think carefully about the language you use when you start to write. Is your paper a tabloid or a broadsheet? How should you use your interviews? What is your paper’s attitude to the event?

Layout


The language which you use when writing your articles is very important. Newspapers have a style all their own and there are distinct differences between the language of a tabloid paper and that of a broadsheet one.

Looking at style

Look at the extracts on the next two slides and decide which one is from a tabloid article and which is broadsheet in style. Find examples from the articles as evidence to support your opinion.


A lonely pensioner was brutally beaten up by a mugger, just yards from her own front door. All she had on her was £7.00. “I was just walking home from my weekly lunch at the local Day Centre,” says widow Mary Evans, 86, of South Court, Devenish. It wasn’t even dark, only 3pm on a September afternoon. And this isn’t a big city. Are we safe anywhere these days?

Not safe in our own streets D.C. Matthew Johns of Green Lane Police Station, Wilborough said, “This is a really nasty attack on a defenceless old lady. It’s not even as though she had anything on her worth stealing.” So, now we can’t even feel safe in our own street. When are the government going to wake up and realise they’ve got to do something about it? After all, we’re the ones who put them there. Shouldn’t they earn their keep by looking after us and making sure that old ladies don’t have to live in fear?

Brutal Attack on Pensioner


Random Street Crime is Rising A national survey conducted by the Police Federation, reveals that we really are less safe on the streets than we were ten years ago. The recent, well-publicised attack on an elderly pensioner, Mrs Mary Evans, aged 86 of Devenish, brought the issue of street muggings back to the public’s attention. The publication of this report will simply confirm what many ordinary people have felt for some time: that police efforts to control street crime have failed. “It is now a matter of urgency that the government should recognise that it is its responsibility to tackle this issue. It cannot be right that the elderly should have to take their lives in their hands every time they step beyond their own front doors,” said Help The Aged’s spokesperson Helen Smith. “We claim to be a civilised country, yet it seems that our streets are not as safe as we should like to think. Perhaps it is time to reassess the priorities of the police force and target the unglamorous side of community policing: drugs seizures are undoubtedly important, but so is the day to day safety of vulnerable members of the community.”


A lonely pensioner was brutally beaten up by a mugger, just yards from her own front door. All she had on her was £7.00. “I was just walking home from my weekly lunch at the local Day Centre,” says widow Mary Evans, 86, of South Court, Devenish. It wasn’t even dark, only 3pm on a September afternoon. And this isn’t a big city. Are we safe anywhere these days?

D.C. Matthew Johns of Green Lane Police Station, Wilborough said, “This is a really nasty attack on a defenceless old lady. It’s not even as though she had anything on her worth stealing.” So, now we can’t even feel safe in our own street. When are the government going to wake up and realise they’ve got to do something about it? After all, we’re the ones who put them there. Shouldn’t they earn their keep by looking after us and making sure that old ladies don’t have to live in fear?

Emotive adverbs and adjectives.

Not safe in our own streets

Brutal Attack on Pensioner

Direct speech Personal details given

Use of contractions

Rhetorical questions.

Sub-heading breaks up text.

Short sentences and very short “paragraphs” throughout.


Random Street Crime is Rising

A national survey conducted by the Police Federation, reveals that we really are less safe on the streets than we were ten years ago. The recent, well-publicised attack on an elderly pensioner, Mrs Mary Evans, aged 86 of Devenish, brought the issue of street muggings back to the public’s attention. The publication of this report will simply confirm what many ordinary people have felt for some time: that police efforts to control street crime have failed. “It is now a matter of urgency that the government should recognise that it is its responsibility to tackle this issue. It cannot be right that the elderly should have to take their lives in their hands every time they step beyond their own front doors,” said Help The Aged’s spokesperson Helen Smith. We claim to be a civilised country, yet it seems that our streets are not as safe as we should like to think. Perhaps it is time to reassess the priorities of the police force and target the unglamorous side of community policing: drugs seizures are undoubtedly important, but so is the day to day safety of vulnerable members of the community.

Sophisticated sentence structure.

Grammatical accuracy.Brief personal details.Direct speech.

Formal vocabulary.


Did you notice any things which both styles of article have in common?

Direct speech is used in both, to give weight to the point of the article.

Both articles give some personal details of the people whom the journalist quotes.

Your article will need to include comments from the people you interviewed, as well as some of their personal details.

Looking at style


Newspapers use extracts from interviews, but they do not use them in the same way as television news reports do.

Look at the extracts used in the tabloid article which you have just been studying.

“I was just walking home from my weekly lunch at the local Day Centre,” says widow Mary Evans, 86, of South Court, Devenish.

D.C. Matthew Johns of Green Lane Police Station, Wilborough said, “This is a really nasty attack on a defenceless old lady. It’s not even as though she had anything on her worth stealing.”

Notice that the journalist’s questions are not used in the article. All that appears is a comment from the interviewee.

Using interviews


remember to keep your sentences quite short

use comments from the people you interviewed

do not include your questions

use either broadsheet or tabloid style: do not mix them

break up your text with sub-headings.

Writing an article

And finally, remember what a dramatic news item this is and use a suitably dramatic style!

It is now time to write your own article:

© boardworks ltd 2003 1 of 29 writing newspaper articles this icon indicates that detailed...

Documents

headlines slide

broadsheet newspapers

types of newspapers

discussion topics slide

broadsheet headline

broadsheet style

tabloid headline

broadsheet papers