How to write a news article
The writing style of news articles differs from that used in other types of articles and newsletters, as news presents information in a special way. It is important that the news concisely convey all the most significant information and present it to the target audience in the best possible way. Understanding how to write news articles will help you advance your career as a journalist, develop your writing skills, and teach you how to communicate important information clearly and concisely.
Planning an article
Study the topic of the article. To start writing an article, you need to carefully study the question about which you are going to write. Your article will turn out believable, well-structured and written in good language only when you thoroughly study its subject matter.
If you have ever had to write scientific articles, then you already understand quite well what kind of work is needed to study the topic covered by the scientific article. The first stage of preparing a news article is practically no different.
Start by asking yourself five questions (sometimes six).
Who was the participant of the event?
What happened?
Where did it happen?
What is the cause of the incident?
When did it happen?
How did it happen?
Collect all the facts together.
When you can clearly answer the above questions, make a list of relevant facts and information to include in the article. Highlight three main groups of facts:
1) facts that must be present in the article;
2) interesting, but not the most important facts;
3) facts relevant to the topic, but not at all important for your article.
A prepared fact sheet will not let you miss out on important information on a topic or event being described. As a result, your article will be of high quality and concise.
When you write facts, try to do it in as much detail as possible. Subsequently, you can always reduce unnecessary information, because it is much easier to do this than trying to expand the article when there is a lack of information.
It is quite understandable that at this stage of preparing the article, you may have some data gaps. If you do not have information on any of the facts, write down a question for yourself and highlight it, so that you do not forget to find out everything you need later.
Now that you have all the facts on hand (and if your editor has not asked you to prepare a specific type of news article), you must decide what form your article will take. Ask yourself if the article should express some kind of opinion or be straightforward and unbiased in presenting the facts, or be something in between.
Sketch the outline of the article. The outline of the article, like the article itself afterwards, should have the structure of an inverted triangle. The point is that all the most important information should be at the top.
Whichever source you are writing for, be it print or online, such as, domyessay, be aware that many people do not read articles to the very end. Therefore, when writing news articles, you should concentrate your efforts on getting your readers to know what they want to know as soon as possible.
Write important information above the fold of the newspaper sheet. As you know, newspapers are sold folded, so there is always a cross-fold on them. You may have noticed that all the most important messages are usually located at the top of the sheet above the fold. The same goes for online publications. In this case, the virtual fold line is the bottom edge of the screen before the page text has to be scrolled further. Try to put the best information at your disposal at the top of the article to keep readers interested and to keep them reading the news.
Study the circle of readers for whom you are writing. To write great news articles, you need to know exactly who you are writing them for. The composition of your readership will determine the style and tone of your writing. Knowing your audience will help you better select facts to include in articles.
Again ask yourself the aforementioned 5-6 questions, but this time try to answer them taking into account the qualitative composition of your readers.
Try to understand for what age category you write, who your readers are, whether they belong to the local region or the country in general, why they will read your article, what they want to learn from it. This is what will help you decide on your writing style.
Once you understand who you are writing for, you can adjust the outline of the article so that it quickly acquaints readers with important information for them.
Find your own perspective for the article. Why is this article unique to you? What is your personal attitude towards this topic? These questions will help you make a news article special, one that only you can write.
Even if you are covering a hot and popular topic that everyone else is writing about, try to look at it from a perspective that will be exclusively yours.
Do you have any of your own life experiences that are relevant to the topic of the article? Perhaps you know someone who can be considered an expert in this matter and who will willingly give you an interview.
Interview the attendees of the event. When writing news articles, firsthand information and interviews are invaluable.
While the whole process of gathering information and trying to ask people for interviews can be frustrating at times, only with their help can you give your article weight and credibility.
Often people like to share their own opinions and experiences, especially if later they write about them somewhere, for example, in your article. Try contacting the people you are interested in by phone, email, or even social media and ask for an interview opportunity.
There are a few important rules to follow when interviewing. First, introduce yourself as a journalist. Second, try to maintain an open mind and objectivity. Remember that during the interview your task is to ask your questions and listen to all the return "fairy tales" (or stories), but you have no right to put forward your criticism.
Write down all the important information about the interview and be honest with the person being interviewed about what kind of article you are writing and why you needed to interview.
Writing an article
Start with the essence. The article should start with a strong sentence that captures the very essence of your news. News articles should begin in a way that immediately grabs the attention of readers and piques their interest in further reading. This is one of the most important requirements for a news article, so you need to give it a solid start. Always remember the inverted triangle structure.
The essence of the article should be simple, but fully expressed in one sentence, reflecting its main theme.
If you have ever written an essay in school, then you should know how to prepare abstracts for your work. The process for writing an article key sentence is similar.
Let your readers understand what your article will be about, why this topic is important, and what will be covered further in the text.
Please provide important details. The next important step in do my essay is to include in it all the facts and details that are directly related to the key proposal. Provide basic information about what happened, where and when, who was involved and why this information deserves a mention in the news.
All these details are of great importance, as they briefly acquaint the reader with the main content of the article.
If you are writing an article that reflects your personal view of events, then here you should also briefly state your opinion.
Accompany key facts with additional information. When you have provided all the basic facts of the news being described, provide additional information that will help the reader learn a little more details, for example, additional information on the topic or contact information of those people about whom the article is talking, or quotes from their interviews.
This information will help to present in the article the full completeness of the picture and smoothly arrange the course of the narrative about various aspects of the event.
If you have your own opinion about the described event, then here you can also indicate the opposite views of various people.
A good news article will simply state the facts and information clearly. A great news article, on the other hand, will elicit an emotional response from readers.
If you want to touch readers with your news, you need to provide enough information in the article so that everyone can form their own opinion on its basis, even if it differs from yours.
The same goes for news articles that reflect events in an unbiased manner without any opinion. Your readers should get enough information to form their own personal opinion about the event.
Fill out the final part of the article. Reward readers for reading to the end of the article and give them something they can take with them. For example, suggest potential solutions to the difficulties or problems mentioned in the article.
Be sure to end the article with a good final sentence. Often it will be a transposition of the key first sentence of the article (its essence) or indicate the expected development of the situation on the topic raised.
To understand how best to write your final sentence, it will be helpful to read other news articles. You can also watch TV news broadcasts. Pay attention to the way professional journalists end their articles and reports, and try to do something similar.
Checking an article
Check the facts before publishing the news. Whether you are write my essay, a professional news article or just running a school project, know that your article cannot be considered finished until the facts are fully verified. Distorted information will immediately undermine the credibility of both your article and you as an author.
Before submitting an article, be sure to double-check all the facts mentioned in it, including names, dates, addresses, and contact information. It is the accuracy of the presentation of information that will allow you to reliably establish yourself as a competent author of news articles.
Make sure to follow the outline and to be consistent in the style of the text when writing the article. News articles can use completely different styles of presenting information, including gonzo journalism, which is a subjective first-person storytelling.
If your article is to be purely factual and not express any opinion, be sure to maintain an open mind and objectivity throughout the story. Avoid excessive positive or negative in your phrases, this can be regarded by readers as support or criticism of events.
If you are writing an article in the style of interpretive journalism, make sure that you provide enough explanation of the main facts and reveal different views on events.
Try to follow the official style of the article text and links to information sources. When writing news articles, journalists in most cases try to adhere to a formal style for citing sources and links. For examples of design, visit the websites of major news agencies.
If you quote someone, without distortion, convey the content of the quote in quotes and accurately indicate the information about the person who told you this. Including in the text, it is necessary to accurately indicate the positions of people, while it is desirable to place them directly in front of the names.
Write numbers from one to nine in words, and numbers from 10 and above in numbers.
When you type text, leave one space after punctuation marks, and do not put spaces in front of them.
Submit your article for editorial review. Even if you yourself have already read your article several times and consider it completely finished, you need to give it to another person to read. In addition to correcting possible spelling and grammatical errors, the editor will help to reduce unimportant information and simplify sentences that are too cumbersome.
It is unwise to publish a news article that has not been verified by someone else. An extra pair of eyes will allow you to double-check the facts and information mentioned so that everything is correct.
If you post school news on your personal site, ask a friend to look at the article and make comments. Sometimes they may seem reasonable to you, sometimes it will be difficult for you to agree with them. In any case, you must listen to them. Remember, with the volume of news that is published every minute, you must ensure that as many of your readers as possible can easily digest the information you give them.
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