BASICS OF NEWS
WRITING:
The 5 W’s & H: Who, What, When, Where, Why & How
Summary Lead:
In just ONE sentence, it summarizes the essential point (the what’s happened?)
of the story. If an editor cut everything but the lead, the lead should still
give readers the basic point of the news story.
Inverted Pyramid
(see textbook for diagram): Most important information at top, with less
important in descending order.
Objective writing
style: facts on, no opinion.
Quotes: add
personality, credibility, interest to your story
Attribution:
attributing information to sources.
You’re only as good as your sources. The news isn’t what YOU say it is –
it’s what your sources say, and we must attribute information to them.
Nut graf: (book demonstrates this well): used in a
straight news story when you have NOT used a summary lead. The nut graf
explains the point of the story.
AP style (See
page in textbook).
