Writing News Articles

1. Writing News Articles

2. This is NOT your typical English class • We don’t write 5 paragraph essays • We don’t start our writing with silly questions or hypothetical statements. • What is journey? • Imagine a world without conflict. • We don’t wait to give our facts until you read further. We throw them at our readers in our first sentence!

3. The  of a news article: 5Ws and 1H • Who: people involved in event • What: events that happened • Where: location of event • When: time & date of event • Why: reasons why event occurred • How: important details of event

4. Lead • First sentence (or two) of a news article. • Stands as its own paragraph. • Contains as many of the 5Ws and 1H as necessary to give important information to your readers. • Developed because of the telegraph (needed to get information across quickly). • This is your chance to grab readers’ attention!

5. Sample Leads • Source: BBC • Article: Deadly landslide hits town in Southern Mexico • URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11429439 • Lead: A landslide triggered by heavy rain has hit a town in southern Mexico, killing at least four people and engulfing a number of houses, officials say. • Reason it's a good lead: This lead does a good job of capturing what, how, where, and who. It is clear, concise, and gets to the point right away. It also grabs the readers attention.

6. Inverted pyramid format • Shows the “shape” of a news article. • Starts with broad statements in the lead (in general terms, what happened?) • As you read further, more specific details are given. Thus, the writer narrows his/her focus • The bottom of the article contains the least important information (just in case your layout editor needs to cut down the article- you don’t want to lose important info!)

7. Stick to the facts • News articles are free from bias and opinion • Present the facts- educate your reader about your topic- and let your reader make up his/her own opinion

8. Writing a Lead • Condense each of these leads to no more than two typed lines, or about 20 words. • Roger Datolli, 67, of 845 Conway Road, a retired attorney and husband of Mayor Sabrina Datolli, who is serving her fourth term as mayor, was injured in a three-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon around 3:20 p.m. at the intersection of Warren and Davidson avenues, suffering a broken leg and several broken ribs when the car he was driving was struck broadside by a pickup truck driven by Jerry R. Harris, 31, of 2245 Broadway Ave., and then was pushed into the path of another vehicle.

9. Writing a Lead Continued • The city Planning and Zoning Commission met Thursday for its regularly scheduled  meeting and voted 3-2 to approve a joint plan by the citys Council of Government and the local Chamber of Commerce to renovate the core downtown business district by building a convention center and sports arena complex that will serve as a site for business meetings and conferences as well as possibly host a minor league hockey team on the Olympic-size ice rink planned for the site.

10. Assignment • Choose a news article of your choice. • CREDIBLE news source (look at the Weebly) • Read the article completely. • Fill out the inverted pyramid worksheet using the 5 Ws and 1 H model.