Tips on Writing News Stories

1. NEWS WRITING

2. This session aims to enable participants to:
• Give the basic information and
salient points of a news article
• Explain the meaning of “angle” in
news writing
• Write an effective and compelling
news story based on facts
OBJECTIVES

3. What are your struggles in
writing news stories?

4. What are your struggles in
writing news stories?
Go to www.menti.com
Use the code 5 0 4 4 1 4 8

5. Discussion Outline
• Pre-writing
• Elements of News
• Skills
• Getting the News
• Writing
• Angle
• Structure
• Parts
• Post-writing

6. What is news?
•North, East,
South, West
•News is
information that
has a meaning
for a set of
readers

7. News…
“Do not limit
your writing to
what you know,
but expand your
it to what you do
not know.”

8. Elements of News
• Impact—How many people does the
event affect? How seriously does it
affect them?
• Proximity—An event will be more
important if it is closer to the
readers.
• Timeliness—Is the event fresh? Is it
new? The news must be timely to be of
use to readers.

9. • Prominence—Names make news, and big
names make big news. Ordinary people are
intrigued by the doings of the rich and
famous.
• Novelty—This is the new in news, the
unusual. The "firsts," "lasts" and "onlys" have
been the staples of the news business for
many years.

10. • Conflict—Conflict has been the
currency of great literature, drama and
movies for all time. Newspapers are no
different.
• Audience—Who is the audience?

11. Is it enough that
you write
grammatically
sound news
stories?

12. Important to master
these skills
• Nose for news
• Listening
• Comprehension
• Curiosity

13. Getting the news
•Actual coverage
•Interview
•Research

14. Writing

15. The Angle
The main idea of a news story or lead is
called the “angle.” It is also referred to
as the “hook” because it is used to grab
or hook the reader’s attention.

16. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/10/rodrigo-duterte-eyes-karaoke-crackdown-as-new-president-of-the-p/

21. The Inverted Pyramid Structure
from the most important to the least important
Lead
Supporting details
Minor
details

22. News Reporting Basics
•Contains 5Ws and 1 H
• Parts of news story
– Lead
– Body

23. The Lead
• Refers to the first few paragraphs
of the news article
• Presents the gist of the story

24. The Body
• Importance of News Reporting
– include a chronology of the issue
being reported
– provide background information
or historical context of the issue
– cite sources of information
– primary sources for crucial data
– secondary sources for background
info

25. Post-Writing

26. •Review
•Revise
•Rewrite

27. Tips
•KISS.
•Use the active voice.
•Verify your data.
•Focus
•Revise and sharpen.

28. More tips…
•Understand the event first. Then
write.
•Write when you know what you
want to say.
•Keep your eye on the lead.
•Be coherent. Paragraphs must
flow.

29. More tips…
•Always assume that your reader
is a first time reader so provide
definitions if there are any
needed.
•Avoid judgments and
• inferences. Let the facts talk.

30. Practical tips…
•Avoid too many details in the lead
paragraph.
•Numbers 1-9 are spelled out, 10
and higher – write in numerics.
•Grade school – PUPILS ;
•High School and College –
STUDENTS

31. More practical tips…
•Avoid repeating the same word in
the same paragraph.
•Leads must be, at the maximum,
35 words long. Paragraphs must
only be one or two sentences
long.

32. More practical tips…
•When using a company/
institution/ department name
more than once in a story, use its
acronym after the first time you
use the term in its fullness

33. More practical tips…
•Be especially careful to avoid
phrases and sentences that are
redundant--- that unnecessarily
repeat the same idea. The
following phrases contain only two
or three words, yet at least one---
the word in italics– is unnecessary:

34. • that particular day
• for the purpose of
• in the event that

35. More practical tips…
Avoid long, unfamiliar words. Whenever possible
substitute simpler and shorter words that convey
the same meaning .

36. Questions?

37. THANK YOU !

38. www.cnnphilippines.com
CNN Philippines
Gerg Cahiles