A presentation on how to write a column in a newspaper.

1. COLUMN
WRITIN
G

2. • Columns are the most personal of all newspaper writing. They
have a very personal appeal, an authoritative influence, and very
useful contribution to make in spreading news and opinions.
• They’re written to inform, to influence, or to entertain readers.
• They’re high in reader-interest for they stimulate public
discussion of the day’s affairs.

3. PURPOSE OF THE COLUMN
• The main purpose of the column is to inform, interpret, and to a
large degree, to fiscalize.
• To explain the news. The columnist has to explain their
significance and consequence by:
a. Giving the background of an event
b. Determining whether a certain event is an isolate case or
part of the pattern

4. c. Pointing out how the event will affect or not affect his
readers.
d. Pooling together and assessing comments of readers
from the different segments of society.
• To entertain the readers

5. QUALIFICATIONS OF A
GOOD COLUMNIST
1. Ability to write good English or Filipino, whichever is his
medium.
2. Originality, creative ability, and imagination.
3. Writing skill, a forceful, flexible style.
4. Ability to observe keenly.
5. Clear, logical thinking.
6. Wide background.
7. Resourcefulness.
8. Have a sense of fairness.
9. Sense of humor.

6. A columnist.....
• Informs the reader of what he may not know
• “Forms” or helps to form public opinion when
he comments with his logic, humor, or emotion
on an issue of the day.
• Features news that papers may have forgotten
to report.

7. • As an interpreter, the columnist condenses the
main news into clear, logical, and effective
sentences to emphasize the meat of the story
so as to form opinion.
• As a fiscalizer, the columnist acts as an arbiter.
• He gives inside information on what people do
not know, of things they are not privy to, and
of secret doings that are hidden from public
view.

8. SOURCES OF MATERIALS
• Current news
• Observations
• Interviews
• Commendable projects
• People researches
• Investigations

9. FORMS OF WRITING USED IN
COLUMNS
• the columnist is free to use
any form of writing. He may
use the essay or the story
form; on certain occasions,
he may even use verse.

10. KINDS AND TYPES OF COLUMNS
• According to purpose:
1. Editorial column
- any personal column founded on the
editorial page.
- makes use of humor as a vehicle in
driving the column’s message.
- considered as the highest expression of
press freedom in the Philippines.

11. 2. Readers Column
- comments sent in by the readers are placed.
-some newspapers call it “Letters to the
Editor” or “Dear Sir”.
3. Business Column
- contains materials about economy, trade
commerce and industry

12. 4. Sports Column
- deals exclusively about sports.
5. Art Column
- deals mostly on painting, architecture, flower
arrangement, paper mache, ikebana, and the
like.
6. Women’s Column
-concerns itself about the latest fashion, beauty
tips and anything about homemaking.

13. 7. Entertainment Column
- all about music, theater, cinema, and the
people involved in them.
8. New products and inventions
- a science paper usually has a column about
the latest products and inventions, and the
researches being conducted by some
prominent scientists

14. 9. Personality
- play up a famous person, his significant
achievements, his activities, dreams, and
ambitions.
10. Reviews
-review of an article, a book, a movie, a drama
or a painting.

15. According to content
1. The “opinion” column
Resembles an editorial in form but, in contrast
with the editorials impersonal and anonymous
approach, carries the personal, stamp of the
writers own ideas.
2. The hodge-podge column
Where the author lumps together odds and
ends of information, a poem here, an
announcement there, a pointed paragraph, a
modernized proverb, a joke, or an interesting
question.

16. 3. The essay column
Is a legacy from a more leisurely age when
writers could seat and scribble an muse in light
or purple prose.
4. The gossip column
Caters to the interest of human beings.
5. The dopesters column
Written by the columnist who also has his
eye to the keyhole but with a more serious
purpose.

17. TIPS
• Don’t be imitative of the style and techniques of known
columnists. Try your own methods.
• Go everywhere for facts and materials.
• Study and interpret rather than moralize.
• Apply all the principles of good writing.
• Have intriguing titles for your columns