How to Write
a Basic News Article
By Teronica Gaiter, eHow Contributor
Telling someone the news is one thing, but actually writing
it and accurately reporting is is the key to success in journalistic writing.
By learning the basics of writing a simple news article, you will be on a great
pathway to a promising journalism career.
- 1
Interview at least three key, trustworthy sources of
information.
- 2
Determine the five W's that are important in any news story:
who, what, when, where and why.
- 3
Write the lead. The lead is the first one or two sentences
that tell the reader what the news article is about. It is used to grab the
reader's attention and keep him reading. In any news article, the most
important parts of the story, such as a death, gain or loss of money or
community prominence should be written or made known to the reader in the first
sentence.
- 4
Write the nut graf. A nut graf is paragraph that explains
the newsworthiness of the story; it tells why the story is important. The nut
graf is usually in the fourth or fifth paragraph of a news article. Remember,
in news writing, paragraphs are usually short (about one to four sentences
long).
- 5
Use the inverted pyramid to write the news article. An
inverted pyramid is a method used in journalistic writing where the broad and
important information comes first in the story, and the more narrow facts
follow. For example: If you are writing a story about a house fire where
someone died in and their pet was injured, you would mention the death first,
and then mention the injured pet later in the story.
- 6
Include direct quotes from your sources. Always attribute
the quote as well. Other techniques are to use paraphrasing and attribute the
thoughts to your source.
Source:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2062284_write-news-report.html
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