This document provides guidance on writing effective newspaper articles by focusing on headlines, subheadings, and lead paragraphs. It discusses techniques for headlines like using exclamations, alliteration, or puns to grab attention. Subheadings should further explain the story. The lead paragraph should briefly summarize the key details of who, what, when, where, and why to entice readers to learn more. Students are instructed to practice these elements in a writing activity.

1. Newspaper Articles
Objective:
To improve your newspaper articles by
writing interesting headlines,
subheadings and lead paragraphs.

2. Starter
• List as many features of newspaper articles as
you can remember.

3. Features of Newspaper Articles
• Headline
• Subheading
• By-line (who wrote the article)
• Photo/image
• Caption
• Written in paragraphs and set out in columns
• Third person (“witnesses say”, “John Smith won the race” etc)
• Past tense (the event has already happened)
• Uses mostly facts and some opinions
• Uses some emotive language (to make it more interesting)
• May be biased (but probably shouldn’t be!)
• Uses quotes from notable people/experts/witnesses
• Inverted pyramid structure

4. Headlines
• Newspapers use the following techniques to
make their headlines interesting and attention –
grabbing:
– An exclamation!!!! Where you make a big statement.
– Alliteration. Where you make words next to each
other start with the same sound. For example:
“Beckham Goes Bonkers”
– Pun. A play on words. Where you reference a play, TV
show, saying, song or other thing that most people
would know about, but you change it slightly so it is
about your story. For example, in a story about a
church burning down: “Holy Smoke!” (holy smoke is a
saying, churches are holy…)

5. Exclamations

6. Alliteration

7. Puns/Plays On Words

8. Task 1
• Complete the headlines worksheet with a
partner.
• You have 5 minutes!

9. Task 2
• Come up with a headline of your own for your article, using
one of the three techniques we discussed.
– Exclamations are easiest
– Alliteration is a bit trickier
– Puns are the hardest of all
• Often when headlines make jokes or are very short
exclamations, they need more information to make sense.
• A subheading provides that extra information, often in a more
straightforward way.
Come up with a subheading for your article.

10. Lead Paragraphs
• A lead paragraph is the first paragraph of an
article.
• It summarises the story very briefly, by covering
the what, who, when, where, why information.
• Why do you think it does this, in a newspaper full
of stories?
• It wont give every detail away.
• It is usually only one or two sentences long.
• It is often in bold font, so it stands out.

11. Task 3
• Write the lead paragraph of your article.
• Use the following examples to help you:
• “SUPERMODEL KATE MOSS is engaged to
marry her rock star boyfriend JAMIE HINCE,
The Sun can reveal.”
• “MEGABUCKS striker Fernando Torres was
summoned to dinner with Chelsea owner
Roman Abramovich's enforcer on his first
night as a Blues player.”

12. Remember emotive language?
• Using emotive language makes a
story/headline/lead more interesting.
• “Model Kate Moss is engaged to her
boyfriend, singer, Jamie Hince.”
OR
• “SUPERMODEL KATE MOSS is engaged to
marry her rock star boyfriend JAMIE HINCE,
The Sun can reveal.”

13. • “MEGABUCKS striker Fernando Torres was
summoned to dinner with Chelsea owner
Roman Abramovich's enforcer on his first
night as a Blues player.”

14. Plenary
• Swap books. Read the headline, subheading
and lead paragraph.
• Check:
– Does the headline use an exclamation, alliteration
or a pun?
– Does the subheading explain the story in more
detail?
– Is there emotive language to make it more
interesting and attention grabbing?
– Does the headline, subheading and lead make you
want to read the rest of the story?