writing e newsletters news
TRANSCRIPT
News –sometimes called “news story” – is mostly published on newspapers, magazines or other online media. A news story tells you about something unusual happening around you. Like a news release, news story has to answer the “5Ws” and the “H”. A good news story should: ∗ Answer the “5Ws” and the “H”. ∗ Be narrowed down in “inverted pyramid” style ∗ Have a clear angle ∗ Be objective (avoid subject “I”) ∗ Quote human voices ∗ Have supporting elements ∗ Be factual ∗ Be word‐economic
News
A good news story should have one or more of the following characteristics: ∗ Proximity – Nearness to your audience / Are they directly affected?
∗ Timeliness – Is this something new? ∗ Prominence – Are those involved of importance to the audience?
∗ Novelty – Is this something unusual, first, largest etc.? ∗ Conflict – Are there competing sides, big or small?
News (Cont.)
∗ Wide Appeal – In many cases local media appeals to an eighth‐grade reading level and topics that appeal to mass audiences. Does your story have wide appeal or can you describe why it should?
News (Cont.)
Like a news release, news story has basic elements described below: ∗ Lead – the first few lines (sometimes only 1 sentence) of
the news story ∗ Body – a block of paragraphs. All the details, usually
written in an inverted pyramid style, are given to support the lead.
∗ Conclusion – a paragraph. A special message is left for the readers. Even if this sometimes used by writers, this is not so important for journalistic writing.
Basics
The basic elements of the body of a news story should have the followings: ∗ The “5Ws” and the “H” – telling about what, where, when, why, who, and how
∗ Background Information ‐ telling something related to the main idea of the story
∗ Supporting elements – like details, print or human quotes, statistics, figures, (sometimes rumors)
Body
A paragraph is a block of sentence grouped together to state a idea or thing. An effective paragraph has the following characteristics: ∗ Concise but meaningful (not exceed 100 words) ∗ Word‐economy (make every word counts) ∗ Should contain only main idea or point (and followed by supporting elements).
∗ Appropriate word choices ∗ Should contain no cliché, jargon, or idiom.
Body: Paragraph
A supporting element is a sentence or few sentences that support a certain statement in a paragraph of the body. Supporting elements can be the followings: ∗ Details ∗ Background ∗ Figures or statistics ∗ Human or print quotes ∗ Rumors (rare case)
Body: Supporting Elements
Every year Beeline gives away school materials to students throughout Cambodia. Last year the company distributed more than 1,000 school bags, 4,300 books, 4,200 pencils and pens, and over 1,000 t‐shirt printed with the slogan “Study for a Bright Future” to 1,000 top students from 23 schools in 20 provinces.
Example 1: Paragraph
Main point
Supporting elements: figures
The two paragraphs have different points. ∗ The company is ready to distribute more than 59,000 books and 59,000 pencils and pens that were printed with the slogan “Study for a Bright Future”.
∗ Ham Phearum said that this year the company gives away those materials to all young children, unlike the previous year that the company rewarded the materials to only top students.
Example 2: Paragraph
Point A
Point B
Human indirect quote
Sample: New
s Stor
y
Use the given news release (Ninth Ebiz Tuesday) to write a 150‐200 word news story for a newsletter or newspaper. Method: Paraphrase/copyedit Time allowed: 15 minutes Word Counts: 150‐200 words
Practice: Writing a News Story