- 1: Sit Down and Write
- 2: Basic Tools of Writing
- 3: Style and the Stylebook
- 4: Writing in the Media Environment
- 5: Writing for Print
- 6: Writing for the Web
- 7: Writing for Broadcast
- 8: Writing Advertising Copy
- 9: Writing for Public Relations
- 10: The Writer and the Law
Chapter notes
The news story format is one of the basic forms of writing for the mass media, and students need to have a good grounding in writing the news story before they tackle other forms of writing. Learning to write a basic news story teaches the student the importance of gathering accurate and complete information, making judgments about that information as to what is important and what is not, and writing so that the content and not the writing itself is what makes an impression on the reader.
Writing news teaches the student many of the disciplines that he or she will need to be successful in working in the mass media. Students should be reminded that the news story form is one that is used not only in newspapers but in many publications, particularly those produced by public relations departments. The habits that a person gains in writing news will be the habits he or she takes to other forms of writing for the mass media.
One of the most difficult concepts to learn about news writing is the manner in which a story should be developed. Students should pay particular attention to the text and examples on pages 168-180. While many students understand the purpose and technique of the lead paragraph, they do not understand how to build a story in the second, third and subsequent paragraphs. Students will write a good lead but then drop into the narrative form in the second graph. They should read and analyze stories in the book -- and better yet, in a local newspaper -- to gain an understand of how an inverted pyramid story should be written.
Key terms and concepts
The following are some of the key terms and concepts that a student should understand and be able to put into practice by the time he or she has finished this chapter.
Inverted pyramid — This is the most common news story structure. A lead paragraph contains the most important information that the writer has to tell the reader, and most of the story should in some way refer to the lead paragraph. A story written in the inverted pyramid form is rarely narrative; instead, the writer must make decisions about what information is most important and what is of lesser importance.
A news story should have unity — that is, it should be about one subject — and this unity is gained through a logical and coherent presentation of the information and an effective use of transitions.
Attribution — The concept of attribution was introduced in previous chapters, but in this chapter the student will need to understand it well enough to put it into practice. The student should know why attribution is important, when it should be used (and when it is not necessary), and what forms of attribution are acceptable in writing the news story.
Direct and indirect quotations — Special attention should be given to making sure that students understand the difference between direct and indirect quotations. If problems develop in this area, one exercise that an instructor might give is to select some direct quotations from the examples in the text or the exercises at the end of the chapter and have students rewrite them as indirect quotations.
Accuracy — This subject is again dealt with, as it has been in previous chapters. Students should pay close attention to the details of what they write as well as to the major parts of their story.
Feature story — The feature story is something that students should be able to distinguish from the news story.
Chapter notes
Writing obits. For generations, the journalism culture demanded that young reporters cut their teeth on obituary stories – “writing obits,” we would say. The thinking was that obituaries were easy to write and possibly not very interesting or important. Today, in many newspapers (except for the larger ones), the obit story has been relegated to a classified advertisement. But writing obits is important work. It always has been. Bert Barnes spent 20 years at the Washington Post writing obituaries before retiring in March 2004. He has written an article for the Post about his experiences on the obit desk. In it he says:
I loved that work. It taught me that even in the monotony of the daily grind, life could be funny and beautiful, surprising and strange. Death is no big deal if you don't love life. I only wish I could have met more of the people I wrote about.
One of the first exercises I had in a beginning news writing class in college was to write my own obituary. All of us in the class had to do that, and we had a lot of fun with it. I remember trying to figure out who the pallbearers would be. I still think that’s a good assignment for a beginning student because they have all the information available without having to interview anyone or look anything up. For an example of an obituary story and its standard parts, a handout is available at JPROF.com as a HTML file or as a PDF file. Either of these can be downloaded and duplicated for classroom use.
Plagiarism. Students sometimes get mixed up about what constitutes plagiarism, but journalists should never let that happen. They should understand that plagiarism is one of the worst things they can do, and they should know how to avoid it. Here is what the Detroit Free Press has to say about plagiarism:
When material is used in a story from sources other than the writer's own reporting, those sources--other publications, previous Free Press stories, radio or TV newscasts, etc.--should be indicated in the story. That attribution need not be made for simple, verifiable facts like dates, but is essential for information that goes beyond simple fact-quotations or descriptions not heard or seen by the current reporter, characterizations or other generalizations not based on the writer's own reporting, etc...
Using someone else's work without attribution -whether deliberately or thoughtlessly--is a serious ethical breach. Staff members should be alert to the potential for even small, unintentional acts of plagiarism, especially in the reporting of complicated stories involving many sources.
Borrowing ideas from elsewhere, however, is considered fair journalistic practice. Problems arise in the gray areas between the acceptable borrowing of inspiration and the unacceptable stealing of another's work. Our standards:
Words directly quoted from sources other than the writer's own reporting should be attributed. That may mean saying the material came from a previous Free Press story, from a television interview, from a magazine or book or wire service report.
When other work is used as the source of ideas or stylistic inspiration, the result must be clearly your own work. That is, what is acceptable to learn from another are the elements of style and approach-tone, rhythm, vocabulary, topic ideas-and not specific words, phrases, images.
You can find what other codes of ethics have to say about plagiarism at Journalism. org (http://www.journalism.org/resources/tools/ethics/plagiarism/excerpts.asp)
Additional resources from
JPROF.com
• Speech story handout
• Simple words (essay)
• Writing with verbs
• And check out the Reporting and Practices sections of JPROF.com
1: Sit Down and Write | 2: Basic Tools of Writing | 3: Style and the Stylebook |
4: Writing in the Media Environment | 5: Writing for Print | 6: Writing for the Web |
7: Writing for Broadcast | 8: Writing Advertising Copy |
9: Writing for Public Relations | 10: The Writer and the Law |
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