Writing a News Article - JHSS English Cavallin …
What is it?
✓ News articles (reports) present factual information about people and events.
✓ Most articles are written in a specific order (inverted pyramid style). This means that each paragraph arranges information in order of significance (importance).
Elements of a News Article
A news article must contain the following:
1. Masthead: _________________________________of the newspaper
2. Headline: ___________________________________ your reader’s attention and
__________________________________ to the story’s content
3. By-line: name of the person who _________________________________________
4. Wire service: name of the ______________________________________ that distributed the story
5. Date line (or place line): tells _______________________________ the story happened
6. Lead: ___________________________________________________ to the article
7. 5WH paragraphs: provide details about ________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
8. Body: _____________________________ information about important facts of the story
9. Photo and Caption: picture of the _________________________________ of the article
and ________________________________________ what the photo is about
10. Quotations: quoted ___________________________________ of what someone (people involved, witnesses, experts, etc.) actually said
A common way to write a news report is to follow what is called the Inverted Pyramid Structure. This means that you begin your report with the most important information and narrow down to the least important information.
One reason this is important is so that editors can cut from the bottom when they need to make a report shorter. This is usually done in a newspaper where fitting together different articles is sometimes difficult.
Inverted Pyramid Structure:
• Begin with the most interesting and important facts. This is called the lead or the introductory paragraph. It answers the questions who, what, when, and where.
• Other important facts come next in the article providing greater detail (facts) about the event(s) and people involved by answering the questions why and how
• Quotations (quoted dialogue of what someone (witnesses, experts, etc.) actually said) are also included
Most Important Information
Least Important Information
Some Rules to Follow
Begin your news report with the lead paragraph.
In one to two sentences, the lead will answer the following questions: who, what, where, when.
Each paragraph thereafter should be no more than two to three sentences long.
The report must be written in third person (no personal pronouns except in the quotations as this is an unbiased piece of writing). Write in the past tense.
When referring to people, start with their full name and only their last name thereafter.
Include a person’s title if you think it’s important (example: Dr. Grohl, cardiologist at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, responded by saying “Well, …”).
-----------------------
LEAD (one paragraph): answers who, what, where, and when
BODY (multiple short paragraphs):
-facts answering why and how
-details about who, what, where,
and when
-quotations
BACKGROUND (multiple short
paragraphs):
-details and facts
Important Facts
Important Facts
Least Important Facts
Least Important Facts
Least Important Facts
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