COLUMN WRITING

By : Rojas, Xandra P.

BSEd IV-A

• Columns are the most personal of all newspaper writing. They have a very personal appeal, an authoritative influence, and very useful contribution to make in spreading news and opinions.

• They’re written to inform, to influence, or to entertain readers.

• They’re high in reader-interest for they stimulate public discussion of the day’s affairs.

VARIETIES OF COLUMNS

Round-about-school and community columns Discussive articles Columns on various topics Food-for-thought Columns Feature columns Humor columns How-to-do-it columns Exchange Columns Critical Report Columns Book Reviews

PURPOSE OF THE COLUMN

• The main purpose of the column is to inform, interpret, and to a large degree, to fiscalize.

• To explain the news. The columnist has to explain their significance and consequence by:

a. Giving the background of an event

b. Determining whether a certain event is an isolate case or part of the pattern

c. Pointing out how the event will affect or not affect his readers.

d. Pooling together and assessing comments of readers from the different segments of society.

• To entertain the readers

QUALIFICATIONS OF A GOOD COLUMNIST1. Ability to write good English or Filipino,

whichever is his medium.2. Originality, creative ability, and imagination. 3. Writing skill, a forceful, flexible style.4. Ability to observe keenly.5. Clear, logical thinking.6. Wide background.7. Resourcefulness.8. Have a sense of fairness.9. Sense of humor.

A columnist.....• Informs the reader of what he may not know

• “Forms” or helps to form public opinion when he comments with his logic, humor, or emotion on an issue of the day.

• Features news that papers may have forgotten to report.

• As an interpreter, the columnist condenses the main news into clear, logical, and effective sentences to emphasize the meat of the story so as to form opinion.

• As a fiscalizer, the columnist acts as an arbiter.

• He gives inside information on what people do not know, of things they are not privy to, and of secret doings that are hidden from public view.

SOURCES OF MATERIALS

• Current news• Observations• Interviews• Commendable projects• People researches• Investigations

FORMS OF WRITING USED IN COLUMNS

• the columnist is free to use any form of writing. He may use the essay or the story form; on certain occasions, he may even use verse.

KINDS AND TYPES OF COLUMNS

• According to purpose:1.Editorial column

- any personal column founded on the editorial page.

- makes use of humor as a vehicle in driving the column’s message.

- considered as the highest expression of press freedom in the Philippines.

2. Readers Column

- comments sent in by the readers are placed.

-some newspapers call it “Letters to the Editor” or “Dear Sir”.

3. Business Column

- contains materials about economy, trade commerce and industry

4. Sports Column

- deals exclusively about sports.

5. Art Column

- deals mostly on painting, architecture, flower arrangement, paper mache, ikebana, and the like.

6. Women’s Column

-concerns itself about the latest fashion, beauty tips and anything about homemaking.

7. Entertainment Column- all about music, theater, cinema, and the people involved in them.

8. New products and inventions- a science paper usually has a column about the latest products and inventions, and the researches being conducted by some prominent scientists

9. Personality

- play up a famous person, his significant achievements, his activities, dreams, and ambitions.

10. Reviews

-review of an article, a book, a movie, a drama or a painting.

According to content1. The “opinion” column

Resembles an editorial in form but, in contrast with the editorials impersonal and anonymous approach, carries the personal, stamp of the writers own ideas.

2. The hodge-podge columnWhere the author lumps together odds and

ends of information, a poem here, an announcement there, a pointed paragraph, a modernized proverb, a joke, or an interesting question.

3. The essay column

Is a legacy from a more leisurely age when writers could seat and scribble an muse in light or purple prose.

4. The gossip column

Caters to the interest of human beings.

5. The dopesters column

Written by the columnist who also has his eye to the keyhole but with a more serious purpose.

TIPS• Don’t be imitative of the style and

techniques of known columnists. Try your own methods.

• Go everywhere for facts and materials.

• Study and interpret rather than moralize.

• Apply all the principles of good writing.

• Have intriguing titles for your columns