News Writing

Registers in English
What is news?

• the "bread and butter" of newspapers

• Merriam-Webster: "a report of recent
events, previously unknown information,
material reported in a newspaper or news
periodical, or on a newscast."
• News is an accurate and timely account of
an idea, issue, or event that affects a
significant number of people.
• came from the fifteenth-century
abbreviation of the term "new things"
News Values

• Timeliness
• Significance
• Proximity
• Prominence
• Oddity
Types of News
• Hard news - the news stories we read on
the front pages of the daily newspaper.
These are written by reporters covering a
particular government agency. It is also
called straight news because it sticks to
the bare facts of a story.
• Soft news - news stories that are human-
interest stories
Other types of news stories

• News Features
- usually written from the writer's personal
perspective and need not be about a
recent event but is still timely because of
the season/anniversary

examples: a feature on EDSA revolution

during its anniversary, Araw ng Kagitingan
In-depth story
- goes beyond the day's facts and seeks to
analyze, interpret and uncover facts
related to an issue or event. It can be
either investigative or explanatory.

examples:
Follow-up story
a story that takes off from previous news
reports and looks at the story from another
angle, from another source, or simply
updates the reader with the developments
of the story

examples: pork barrel scam, Yolanda

Sidebar
a more focused story that accompanies
the bigger story.

example: a story politician's fashion during

the president's State of the Nation
Address
Characteristics of effective newswriting

Clear
Concise
Correct
Credible and complete
Characteristics of effective newswriting

Clear
- logical order of the story
- simplicity of words used
- correctness of the sentence structure
examples:
Concise
- has complete information, but is written
without verbosity

examples:
× The donation came from someone who
did not want to be identified
 The donation was anonymous
Correct
- technical correctness: structure,
grammar, style of the news story
- conceptual correctness: accuracy of data
presented in the story. Data must be
factual, objective and fair.
example:
Credible and complete
- for a news story to be credible, it has to be
complete and vice versa
- Credibility
- right sources, based on facts rather than
hearsay, fair and unbiased, not one-sided
- Completeness
- has all the necessary facts
- goes beyond 5Ws 1Hs and gives context
and background to the event, issue or idea
Structure of a news article

designed in such a way that it answers both

the fast delivery of news demanded by its
reader and its fast construction by its
producers
Structure of a news article

• Inverted Pyramid - from the most

significant details to the least significant

• Narrative - tells the story chronologically

• Hourglass - a combination of inverted

pyramid and narrative
Headlines

• the title of a news story

• printed in bigger and bolder type than the
story
• functions:
– to tell in capsule form what the story is all
about
– to grade the news as to importance
– to make the page look attractive
• Faculty club strengthened (beefed up)
• Enrollment decreases (dips)
• The Blue and White wins 12 medals in
press contest (bags, romps away with, tilt,
parley)
Lead

• introduction
• may be a single word, a phrase, a clause,
a brief sentence, an entire paragraph, or a
series of paragraphs
• functions:
– to introduce the story
– to tell the story in capsule form
– to answer right away the questions the reader
would naturally ask
Lead

Traditional Lead
is expected to answer 5Ws and 1Hs
Who lead
What lead
When lead
Where lead
Why lead
How lead
Alternative Lead
- colorful leads to attract the reader
- called "alternative" because they
sometimes break convention or rules of
grammar
- also called "delayed" leads because they
only give a clue to what the story is about
instead of informing the reader
- the summary is left to the nut-graph
Alternative Lead
example:
Sample Lead: Watching television can be
deadly.
Nut graph: Joselito D. Cruz, 35, was beaten
to death when he changed the television
channel against the wishes of the other
patrons at the Lopaluza Bar along Taft
Ave. last night.
Source

• Cruz, C.J.(1997).Campus Journalism and

School Paper Advising. Quezon City: Rex
Printing Company, Inc.
• Khan, R. (2010). Campus Journalism.
Mandaluyong City: Anvil Publishing, Inc.