A press release is an official statement (written or recorded) that an organization issues to the news media and beyond. Whether we call it a “press release,” a “press statement,” a “news release,” or a “media release,” we're always talking about the same basic thing.

3. - official statement issued by the
PNP to the media. It may be
purely factual and address a
specific issue or concern, or may
be promotional in nature.
Press Releases

4. WHY we write Press Releases?
Because people want to know what is
happening, what we are doing, how far we
have gone in performing our duties and
responsibilities.

5. HEADLINE WRITING
• HEADLINE is the title of the press
release. It serves as a quick source of
information.
• It must give the essence of the story.

6. Steps in Writing Headline
Step 1- Read the spot report/source of information.
The headline must convey a brief synopsis of the
article and must be accurate.
Step 2-Decide on the most important information to
be conveyed in the headline: what will grab the
attention of the most readers?

7. Steps in Writing Headline
Step 3-Consider the appearance of the
headline.
• The font size of the letters used often convey
to the reader the article's importance.
Step 4- Write the headline. Confirm that there
are no more errors in form and in content.

8. Guidelines in Writing Headline
1. Use specific words. Make the information as
exact as you can in the limited space of the
headline
Wrong: Politician wins election.
Correct: Noynoy wins presidential post.

9. 2. Use Active voice. The doer of the action must
be in the subject position. However, use the
passive voice when the action is more significant
than the doer.
Example: SC postpones general meeting
Guidelines in Writing Headline

10. 3. Use the historical present (the present form of
the verb for the past events, and the infinitive form
for the future events.
Wrong: The Core copped 5 trophies at NSSPC
Correct: The Core cops 5 trophies at NSSPC
Future: RD CARAMAT JR TO RECEIVE CAVALIER
AWARD FOR POLICE OPERATIONS
Guidelines in Writing Headline

11. 4. Omit all articles a, an, the and other
unnecessary words.
Wrong: The 7 cops hurt in ambush
Correct: 7 cops hurt in ambush
5. Avoid label head
Wrong: Auctioned
Correct: Imelda jewelry auctioned
Guidelines in Writing Headline

12. 6. Do not use the same word twice in the headline or kicker
Gun haul
Manila cops seize 25 guns
from suspected bandits
7. Never use the word “may”. It denotes the uncertain element of
the story.
Wrong: Sayyaf may demand P1M for release of 3 captives
Correct: Sayyaf demands P1M for release of 3 captives.
Guidelines in Writing Headline

13. 8. To use direct quotation as head, use any of the following
forms instead of the traditional quotation marks:
A. Using the dash instead of the quotation mark.
Example: Truth commission repugnant – Miriam
B. Using the colon
Example: Joker: Cut debates, fast-track canvass
9. Do not be in the negative.
Poor: Summer Training in Journalism won’t be held
Better: Summer Training in Journalism cancelled
Guidelines in Writing Headline

14. 10. The first letter of the word and proper nouns are
generally capitalized.
Example: Bell saves Tigers from Coffee Makers
11. Use M for million and B for billion
Example: West Visayas gets P 600 M for typhoon victims
Guidelines in Writing Headline

15. 12. Use comma instead of and.
Example: No goodbyes for Jamby, Nene, Mar, Noy at
Senate
13. Separate double headline by a semicolon.
Example: Bomb explodes at Koronadal market; 13
killed, 53 hurt
14. Do not end the headline with a period.
Guidelines in Writing Headline

16. 15. Use infinitive for future events.
Example: Aquino to visit Saudi on way to NY
16. Avoid splitting compound word
Wrong: Aquino to award taxi
driver for honesty
Right: Aquino to award taxi driver for honesty
Guidelines in Writing Headline

17. 17. Do not start the headline with a verb.
Wrong: Destroy crops worth P 50 M
Correct: P 50M worth crops destroyed
Guidelines in Writing Headline

18. Types of Headline
According to Style
1. All Caps Letters
RD CARAMAT JR TO RECEIVE THE MOST
COVETED CAVALIER AWARD IN POLICE OPERATIONS
2. Combination of Cap and lower cases (CLC)
PROCOR Welcomes 157 New Peace Warriors
3. Sentence Case or Down Style
(Only the first letter of the first word is capitalized)
Soccsksargen police to deploy 485 more cops

19. Exercises
Write headline from the following leads:
1. Butuan City---Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Gen.
Rodolfo Azurin Jr, led the installation of the new director
of Police Regional Office in Caraga (PRO-13) on
Thursday here.
2. The Department of the Interior and Local Government
(DILG) today announced that the Philippine National
Police - Crime Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-
CIDG) arrested two extortionists in Dagupan City,
Pangasinan involved in swindling and extortion activities
against Local Government officials posing as senior
DILG officials in their modus.

20. Exercises
3. A Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) member with two
standing warrants of arrest for murder was killed in a
shootout with police operatives around 1:00AM today
(January 20) in Surigao del Norte.

21. Press Release Writing

22. Leads
Let’s talk about

23. Leads
Most straight news leads
should be summary leads.
That means they summarize
the 5 Ws and H of the story,
starting off with the most
important W or H.

24. Types of News Leads:
Use these often...
“How lead” - begins with the how of the story.
Used often.
“Why lead” - begins with the cause the story.
Used often.
“What lead” - begins with the fact of the story.
Used often.

25. Who lead
President Barack Obama will make a brief
appearance at the high school Thursday after
giving a speech at the County Expo Center.

26. How lead
Through a grass roots voting effort,
senior Gilbert Castillo won the mayoral
election to become the youngest mayor in
the city’s history.

27. Why lead
Because they wanted to carry on the
tradition, four seniors streaked across the
football stadium during the homecoming
pep rally wearing a paper leis and tennis
shoes.

28. What lead
The Harry Potter series and Lord
of the Rings series will be removed
from all school libraries this fall.

29. Now that we know the type of lead
we are looking for, how do we write
a good lead?
• read the entire spot report
• find the newest information
• write one to two sentences summarizing the
“new” news including as many other Ws and H
as possible

30. How to structure a News Item
The structure of a straight news item is an inverted pyramid.
The arrangement in newswriting is the reverse of the literary
form.
INTRO
BODY
CONCLUSION Minor
details
Details
Context
Background
Set the Scene
What’s the News?

31. The government has imposed a four-moth ban on imports of plywood and veneered panels.
WHO?
WHAT?
WHEN?
WHY?
WHERE?
HOW?
WHY?
WHY?
NEWS
SETTING
THE SCENE
CONTEXT
BACKGROUND
OTHER DETAILS
The ban aims at protecting the local timber manufacturing industry which is
partly government-owned. Local sales of plywood have fallen over the last
year because of cheaper import from New Zealand, Singapore and
Malaysia.
The Minister of Trade, Mr. Levi says the ban on imports can
be replaced next year by a system of import quotas. That
means local companies will only be allowed to import and
sell a limited amount of plywood and veneered panels.
The government wants to encourage the local
timber manufacturing industry and the export of
locally made timber products. Exporting logs
offers a much smaller return than exporting
manufactured timber products such as
plywood. The minister also says
expanding the local industry will
provide more jobs fro Papua
New Guineans.
(if time allows, other
details on PNG Forests
Products Limited
can be included
here.

32. APPLYING THE INVERTED PYRAMID:

33. Direct
Quotes
Let’s talk about

34. Direct Quotes:
 Should be linked to the transition/lead before them. The
quote should elaborate on the transition.
For example:

35. Direct Quotes:
 Should not repeat the transition/lead before them.
For example:
President Barack Obama will make a brief appearance
at the high school Thursday after giving a speech at the
County Expo Center.
“ After speaking at the Expo Center, the candidate will
come to the high school for a short appearance,” Principal
Ike Sumter said.

36.  Can be longer than one sentence.
Direct Quotes:
Should have attribution after the first sentence of
the quote.
Attribution should be: Noun then verb.
For example:
Correct - senior Bob Rodriguez said.
Incorrect - said senior Bob Rodriguez.
(unless you have an unusually long title)
Do not place two people’s direct quotes next to
each other without a transition.

37. Transitions
Let’s talk about

38. Transitions
 VERY, VERY IMPORTANT. Hold the story together.
Link the paragraphs together.
Can be fact, indirect quote or a partial quote.
For example - FACT TRANSITION:
(lead) Former Republican presidential candidate John
McCain will speak to seniors Friday about his experience as
a prisoner of war.
(Direct Quote)“Seniors will learn a lot about duty and
commitment when they hear Sen. McCain,” Principal Ike
Sumter said. “We are so excited that he agreed to come.”
(Fact Transition) During the Vietnam War, Sen. McCain
was a prisoner of war for five years.

39. Transitions
 Can be fact, indirect quote or a partial quote.
For example - INDIRECT QUOTE TRANSITION:
(lead) Former Republican presidential candidate
John McCain will speak to seniors Friday about his
experience as a prisoner of war.
(Direct Quote)“Seniors will learn a lot about
duty and commitment when they hear Sen.
McCain,” Principal Ike Sumter said. “We are so
excited that he agreed to come.”
(IQ Transition) Sumter said he was moved after
hearing Sen. McCain speak about his
imprisonment.

40. Can be fact, indirect quote or a partial quote.
For example - PARTIAL QUOTE TRANSITION:
(lead)Former Republican presidential candidate
John McCain will speak to seniors Friday about his
experience as a prisoner of war.
(Direct Quote)“Seniors will learn a lot about duty
and commitment when they hear Sen. McCain,”
Principal Ike Sumter said. “We are so excited that he
agreed to come.”
(Partial Quote Transition) Sumter said he “had tears
in his eyes” when he heard Sen. McCain speak about
his imprisonment.
Transitions

41. (lead)Former Republican presidential
candidate John McCain will speak to seniors
Friday about his experience as a prisoner of war.
(Direct Quote)“Seniors will learn a lot about
duty and commitment when they hear Sen.
McCain,” Principal Ike Sumter said. “We are so
excited that he agreed to come.”
(Partial Quote Transition) Sumter said he “had
tears in his eyes” when he heard Sen. McCain
speak about his imprisonment.
What comes next??

42. Use transitional words to help with the flow
(as needed): After all, Also, Finally, In
addition, However, Otherwise, Then
For example:
In addition to speaking about his
experience as a prisoner of war, McCain also
plans to talk to students about the importance
of voting.
Transitions

43. What types of
leads should
you use more?
Where
should you
place the
attribution
for a direct
quote?
How many
sentences
can a
direct
quote be?
What is the
purpose of the
transition?
What can a
transition
be?
Following a
transition,
what should a
direct quote
do?
Let’s Review …

45. Important tips:
• Always cut unnecessary words.
• Don't use complicated-sounding words when simpler
ones will do. A news story should be understandable to
everyone.
• Don't use the first-person "I" in news stories
.
• Sentences should be kept relatively short, and
whenever possible use the subject-verb-object formula.
Backward constructions are harder to read.

46. Important tips:
• In Associated Press style, punctuation almost
always goes inside quotation marks. Example:
"We arrested the suspect," Detective John Jones
said. (Note the placement of the comma.)
• News stories are generally written in the past
tense.

47. Important tips:
• Never inject your opinions into a hard-news story. Save
your thoughts for a review or editorial.
• When you first refer to someone in a story, use the full
name and job title if applicable.

48. Important tips:
• Don't repeat information.
• Don't summarize the story at the end by
repeating what's already been said. Try to find
information for the conclusion that advances the
story.

49. What are the duties of a copyreader?
A. Errors in form
• To correct errors in grammar
• To correct errors in spelling
• To correct errors in punctuation
• To correct errors in usage

50. What are the duties of a copyreader?
B. Errors in content
• To correct errors in fact
• To improve news value
• To guard against criticism
• To expand copy
• To reduce copy
• To write headlines of news and check heads or titles of
editorials, features and literary articles

51. What are the duties of a copyreader?
• To delete unnecessary adjectives and opinion in news
• To delete libelous, seditious, and rebellious matter and
all those contrary to laws, and good taste
• To correct redundancy and rewrite sentences with
verbal deadwood.
• To rewrite sentences or paragraphs that violate the
principles of unity, coherence, and emphasis
• To correct errors in style and structure

52. Exercises:
A. Identify the error, then tell whether it is in form or in content.
Explain your answer.
1. The guard did not saw all the students coming in.
2. The agenda for the meeting is quite long.
3. The Core luckily tops prestigious press tilts
4. Floods destroy field house- clean- up to take three weeks.
5. In a news story-The most efficient and knowledgeable principal
represented the school in the well known national schools press
conference.

53. Exercises:
6. The final conclusion revealed that the dead corpse was a
victim of fatal murder.
7. You’re the one whose going to be promoted.
8. President Aquino has been encountering rough sailing
with the philippine media.
9. The old man was brought to the hospital.
10. Grenade blast killed 2 kids

54. Exercises:
B. Copyread the following leads.
1. President Aquino yesterday said graduates off
the philippine military academy (PMA) this year
were embarking on a military Carreer not to
enrich themselves but to serve the nation.

55. Checklist for Press Release
 Are the most important and recent facts first?
 Is the story accurate? Are the sources identified
fully?
 Are the paragraphs short?
 Is the sentence structure varied in the story?
 Is the story neat and double-spaced so that it is easy
to read?
Does your story flow? Did you use the
transition/quote formula?
 Did you use active voice?