Guide to Writing a News Story
The purpose of the news is to provide information to a wide audience of readers. Writing a news article is different from your standard English essay.
Your news articles should be in the following format:
The Lead
This is your first and most important sentence. It should tell the reader what the whole article is about. You should include as many of the 5 W's and H as you can (who, what, when, where, why, and how). It should be around 30 words.
The Body
The facts of the story go in the paragraphs that follow your lead. The following are some tips and suggestions to help you write your news stories:
• Stay objective. No opinion or commentary should be included, unless it is quoted or attributed to someone.
• Put the most important information first. Don't work up to your good info, use it right away. The least important/interesting facts should be towards the end.
• When quoting or using information from an individual, make sure to give proper credit (e.g. Jane Smith said, "....").
• Collect more information than you need.
• Keep to the third person. Never use I's, we's, or you's unless they are in a quote.
• News writing uses short sentences and paragraphs. Each paragraph should be no longer than three sentences.
• There is no conclusion in a news story, your last paragraph will be the least important facts.
