THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT



THE NEWS ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT

This assignment relates to The Most Dangerous Game. You are a journalist who is sent over to Ship Trap Island to report on Rainsford’s terrifying experience in the hands of General Zaroff. You must describe Zaroff’s castle and the surrounding island, provide your readers with a little background information on both Rainsford and the general, and you should also include as part of your article a bried interview with Rainsford.

You should attempt to format your work so that visually it appears to be an article from a newspaper. For this purpose, you have to include:

1. a headline in large print above the article itself – if you wish, you could include above it the name of the fictitious newspaper, or anything else you think of to make it seem authentic.

2. a picture to accompany the article – find a suitable one online (it doesn’t have to actually be a picture of what you describe in your article, but something that at least resembles it) or take a photo of yourself, a friend, or a relative acting out a suitable scene.

In addition, make sure you follow the advice on the handout “How to write a News Article”.

Your work must be typed, but since it should have the appearance of a news article, it should be single spaced. It should be at least 250 words in length.

HOW TO WRITE A NEWS ARTICLE

As you may have noticed from reading news articles, a specific format must be followed when writing this type of text. The purpose of a news article is simply to convey the facts of an event in as objective a manner as possible. Here are some tips in order to structure your writing appropriately:

1) You must start with a headline. The headline shouldn’t be a summary of the article; instead it should serve the purpose of getting the reader’s attention. For example, a headline could be: “ATTACK OF THE JEWEL THIEVES”

2) Following the headline, the article itself should start with a “lead paragraph” which is the summary of the story. It should include the who, what, when, where and why of the story. “Last Thursday, two armed men walked into Graff Jeweller’s on New Bond Street in London and walked out with £40 million worth of jewels.”

3) After the lead paragraph comes a more in-depth explanation of the story. Some details may not be as important as others, and you should try to arrange these in order of importance from greatest to least. Don’t feel you need to include everything you know, but do include everything you feel is important. The more detailed information might be as follows: “The heist occurred Thursday, when two men walked into the jewelry store at about 4:40 p.m. and threatened employees with handguns. As the robbers were leaving the store, they brought a female worker outside with them before leaving in a blue BMW, Scotland Yard said. A shot was fired outside the store, but no one was injured.”

4) If the average reader will be confused reading the story, fill in any gaps with

background information. For example: “Bond Street is a major shopping street in one of the most prestigious districts of London. It is home to many jewelers, glamorous clothes shops, and many high class bars and restaurants”.

5) Brief quotes taken from interviews with the people involved add authenticity to the article and make the report more interesting. An example would be: "This was a well-planned robbery with a number of vehicles used to help the robbers escape," Detective Chief Inspector Pam Mace said.

6) Do not use the first person. Most importantly, your own personal opinion has no place in a news article. Make sure you remain objective.

7) When possible, use quotes to give flavour to the article.

For examples of news articles, simply visit timesonline.co.uk or

The example article described above would end up as follows on the next page:

ATTACK OF THE JEWEL THIEVES

Last Thursday, two armed men walked into Graff Jeweller’s on New Bond Street in London and walked out with £40 million worth of jewels.

The heist occurred Thursday, when two men walked into the jewelry store at about 4:40 p.m. and threatened employees with handguns. As the robbers were leaving the store, they brought a female worker outside with them before leaving in a blue BMW, Scotland Yard said. A shot was fired outside the store, but no one was injured.

Bond Street is a major shopping street in one of the most prestigious districts of London. It is home to many jewelers, glamorous clothes shops, and many high class bars and restaurants.

"This was a well-planned robbery with a number of vehicles used to help the robbers escape," Detective Chief Inspector Pam Mace said.

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