5
Basic News Writing
For those of you who have used previous editions of Writing for the Mass Media, this chapter
represents a shift in content and emphasis —and it is emblematic of the shift that takes place in
other parts of the book. The chapter title includes reporting because, increasingly, that is the
emphasis of journalism. Whereas journalism instructors once had the luxury of emphasizing
strictly writing without much regard for gathering information, that option is less frequently
exercised.
Text is one of the four tools of the journalist —
along with images, audio and video. The
journalist must learn to use all four. Everything
begins with text, however, and despite the
advent of some very different forms of
information distribution, text continues to be
primary.
Writing news teaches the student many of the disciplines that he or she will need to be successful
in working in the mass media. Students should be reminded that the news story form is one that
is used not only in newspapers but in many publications, particularly those produced by public
relations departments. The habits that a person gains in writing news will be the habits he or she
takes to other forms of writing for the mass media.
Key terms and concepts
The following are some of the key terms and concepts that a student should understand and be
able to put into practice by the time he or she has finished this chapter.
A news story should have unity — that is, it should be about one subject — and this unity is
gained through a logical and coherent presentation of the information and an effective use of
transitions.
Attribution — The concept of attribution was introduced in previous chapters, but in this chapter
the student will need to understand it well enough to put it into practice. The student should
know why attribution is important, when it should be used (and when it is not necessary), and
what forms of attribution are acceptable in writing the news story.
examples in the text or the exercises at the end of the chapter and have students rewrite them as
indirect quotations.
Accuracy — This subject is again dealt with, as it has been in previous chapters. Students should
pay close attention to the details of what they write as well as to the major parts of their story.
Links and resources
Poynter online, writing from the top down. The inverted pyramid, despite its criticism, remains
a fixture in the news industry. Chip Scanlan gives a short history on this form of writing and
Chapter notes
Headlines and summaries. The advent of the Web as a news medium has increased the
importance and urgency of students learning how to write good headlines. This is a challenge for
instructors because good headlines are difficult even for seasoned professionals. One of the
answers is practice. Give your students lots of opportunities to write headline. Another answer is
analyze and rewrite. Devote some very serious classroom time to looking at headlines and
figuring out what’s right and wrong with them. One news website that has consistently good
headlines is the BBC, British Broadcasting Company:
The future of news writing. The final paragraph of the chapter text suggests that we should
begin thinking about news story structures that would be alternatives to the inverted pyramid
and would be more suitable to websites and mobile devices. Such as thought is painful to those
of us who grew up learning and using the inverted pyramid and believing that it would never
change. But we are in an age where readers are demanding information quickly — too quickly
for the inverted pyramid to deliver satisfactorily. In the words of Web usability guru Jakob
Nielsen, readers are “lazy, selfish and ruthless.” They know what they want, they don’t want
to search for it, and if your website doesn’t give it to them, they’ll go away. And chances are, they
Question bank
1. Information that may not need attribution in a news story includes
2. Define attribution.
3. When we say that information should be attributed, we mean that it should
4. The most common structure for a print news story is the inverted pyramid. That means:
5. What is the preferred verb for attribution in print news stories?
6. List two technical guidelines for writing a lead for a news story.
7. Using quotations in a news story for print
8. Which four of the 5 Ws and H are usually contained in a lead paragraph for a newspaper
story?
9. The difference between facts and opinion is
10. A lead paragraph should
11. Why is the inverted pyramid useful?
12. When writing a news story,
13. In dealing with quoted material in a news story,
14. In most situations, the most important consideration that a news reporter will have about a
set of facts is
15. In most good news stories, what should be included in the first three or four paragraphs?
16. The most important part of a news story is the:
17. The when element in the lead should be
18. What should the second paragraph of a news article contain?
19. Which is correct if you are writing for print?
Additional exercises
Using the inverted pyramid-1
Write a 200 to 250-word inverted pyramid news story using the following information. In writing
the story, refer to the inverted pyramid checklist in the text. (This is an expanded version of the
story that appears in Ex. 5.6, pages 96-97.)
• Estimates of damage from the Ticonderoga County sheriff’s department: three point five million
dollars, a lot of money by anybody’s standard.
Sheriff Billy Hubert: “This is the worst fire we’re had in this county in more than a decade. We
appreciate the fine work of our own fire departments in the county in putting out this blaze and
the help we received from our neighbors.”
• About 25 people from outside the area came to help in putting out the fire.
• Sheriff says they suspect arson, they are investigating.
• Sheriff: “I’m glad we got this cleared up. I believe that our investigation would have eventually
produced those who started this fire. Now we won’t have to go through all of that.” What will
happen to the boys? “That will be up to the juvenile judge to decide. I would hope that if they
are held responsible, they will have to do some type of community service to get them to realize
the seriousness and the consequences of their actions.”
On the following pages are two examples of how this story might be written.
Example 1
Two juveniles say campfire sparked
fires in south Ticonderoga County
Two juveniles claimed responsibility Tuesday for a campfire that sparked a three-day fire that
raged across southern Ticonderoga County last month.
The boys, ages 14 and 15, came to the sheriff’s office with their parents today and said they
believed that it was their campfire that had begun the blaze. They were charged with ignoring
sheriff’s safety signs concerning fires and have been released to the custody of their parents.
“I’m glad we got this cleared up,” he said. “I believe that our investigation would have
eventually produced those who started this fire. Now we won’t have to go through all of that.”
Hubert said that a hearing in juvenile court will be held for the boys in two weeks.
Example 2
Teenagers claim responsibility
for sparking blaze in Ticonderoga
Two teenage boys confessed Tuesday to starting a forest fire in Ticonderoga County last month
that burned 3,500 acres of forestland, destroyed several hunting cabins and caused $3.5 million in
damage.
“I’m glad we got this cleared up,” Hubert said. “I believe that our investigation would have
eventually produced those who started this fire. Now we won’t have to go through all of that.”
The boys were released to their parents’ custody, Hubert said. They will have a hearing in
juvenile court in two weeks, and their punishment will be decided by the juvenile court judge.
“I would hope that if they are held responsible, they will have to do some type of community
service to get them to realize the seriousness and the consequences of their actions,” Hubert
said.
The fire was intensified by dry conditions and strong winds. Ticonderoga County received only
one inch of rain in the last month.
Using the inverted pyramid-2
Write a 200 to 250-word inverted pyramid news story using the following information. In writing
the story, refer to the inverted pyramid checklist in the text. (This is an expanded version of the
story that appears in Ex. 5.6, pages 96-97.)
• City council meeting last night; opened with prayer and reading of the minutes from last
meeting.
• Discussed bids for running cafeteria in the city police station; no action taken.
• Discussed proposal by member Darden Clarke to strengthen city’s leash law; proposal would
make it a misdemeanor (a crime) to own a dog that had bitten someone; a person convicted for
owning such a dog could be fined up to five hundred dollars and spent five nights in jail; large
crowd in the city council room to hear this debate – 200, about half in favor of the law and half
against.
• Debate lasts for over 1 hour; during which time, some of the people who were there were given
a chance to speak. One man brought in his three dogs, right there into the council chamber.
Mayor ordered him to leave when they started barking. Mayor is Cathy Marshall.
• Randy Noble: “I believe the laws we have are strong enough. The city should just enforce them
better. Most dog owners like I – we don’t have no problem with the laws as they now stand, but
it don’t do no good to threaten us with jail.” Noble list at 1717 Carriage Lane and is a welder
with Empire Steel Company.
• Bradley Carden: “No dog owner in the city is going to vote for you guys again if you pass a law
like this one.” Carden lives at 6512 Mimosa Tree Road.
On the following pages are two examples of how this story might be written.
Example 1
City council rejects bid to toughen
leash law by making owners liable
The City Council rejected a proposal Monday that would charge dog owners whose pets bite
people with a misdemeanor offense carrying penalties of up to $500 and five days in jail.
After an emotional one-hour debate, the council voted 5-2 against the measure introduced by
council member Darden Clarke. Clarke said he has received at least five complaints about dog
bites in his district during the past month.
“Look at this little girl and tell me who is responsible for this. Tell me who should be held
accountable for the pain that this little girl has and the fear she had to carry with her when she
plays in her own neighborhood,” Wallace said.
Council member John Simpson opposed the measure. He questioned whether citizens are truly
threatened by vicious dogs.
Example 2
Emotional plea for new leash law
fails to move city council to action
Some 200 people crowded into the council room to hear the debate.
Clark said he had heard many complaints from his constituents and argued that the city should
“do something to stop this plague of dog bites in this city.”
The strongest plea for a tougher law came from Diane Wallace, who brought her 5-year-old
daughter Denise with her. Denise had bandages on both of her legs, and her mother tearfully told
the council that the girl had been bitten three times by a neighbor’s dog.
Using the inverted pyramid-3
Write a 200 to 250-word inverted pyramid news story using the following information. In writing
the story, refer to the inverted pyramid checklist in the text. (This is an expanded version of the
story that appears in Ex. 5.6, pages 96-97.)
• Harley Duncan: “We have two fine candidates here. I find it very difficult to choose between
them. Both of them have accomplished a lot during their careers, and I believe they each would
do a good job for us at Haraway.” Harley is a member of the board, weighs 270 pounds and
speaks very slowly.
• Crowd of 200 people there; some supporters of McCorvey, some not. McCorvey and Coleman
were not in the room; they were waiting in another room in the city board offices while the
debate was going on.
• Alex McCreless, 1615 Ireland Dr. : “I have a child who is about to graduate from Haraway, and
while I have nothing against Ms. McCorvey, I think it high time we got some new blood into our
school system. We need some fresh thinking and new ideas. I think we need a change.”
• About a dozen other people spoke, three of them in favor of Coleman and the rest in favor of
McCorvey, thus proving where the crowd stood; board voted after an hour of debate and
discussion to hire Coleman; vote was five to 4.
• Coleman was born and grew up and has lived most of his life in Louisiana and has a bachelor’s
and master’s degrees from Backwater State University in Tennessee. He is the principal of
Sandy Bar High School in Sandy Bar, LA. He’s done that for about 10 years.
On the following pages are two examples of how this story might be written.
Example 1
School board bypasses assistant principal,
gives top job at Hardaway to Louisiana man
The City School Board named Mike Coleman, principal of Sandy Bar High School in Sandy Bar, La., to
the top post at Haraway High School during its Monday meeting.
In a 5-4 vote, the board picked Coleman over Haraway assistant principal Juli McCorvey. Coleman
and McCorvey were the finalists in a search that drew more than 40 applicants.
Although she was not picked, McCorvey had support among the 200 people attending the meeting.
Three-fourths of the dozen or so citizens who spoke out supported McCorvey.
“I have a daughter in the tenth grade at Haraway, and we have been helped a great deal by Mrs.
McCorvey. I think she deserves this chance to be in charge and that she will do a good job,” Taylor
Whitson, of 2121 Blackoak Drive, told the board.
McCorvey and Coleman were not in the room while the one-hour discussion took place.
Coleman, a Louisiana native, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Backwater State University in
Tennessee.
Example 2
Coleman, principal in Louisiana,
chosen by board over McCorvey
The City School Board chose Mike Coleman, a high school principal in Louisiana, as the new principal
of Haraway High School in a meeting Monday that drew some 200 people.
Darren McGarity, the parent of a Haraway senior, gave credit to McCorvey for the fact that his son is
about to graduate. McGarity said his son was having problems in the ninth grade, and McCorvey was
able to get him the help that he needed.
“He’s going to graduate in June, and it’s because of her,” he said.
