Tips for Future News Writers

(Photo courtesy of "Confessions of a Shopaholic") Curious about your surroundings? Want to find out about things happening at Towson U and in your neighborhood? Feeling creative writing juices? To anyone who wants to be a journalist, here are several tips for writing news stories and finding good stories to write about.

- First off, keep these five words in mind (somehow, they come in fives): accuracy, transparency, fairness, objectivity, and thouroughness. These words keep all journalists in check when writing a good news story. Allow me to break it down briefly. When in doubt, don't use information that may be controversial or inaccurate. Evaluate every piece of information you have. Tell readers where you got the information from and be honest about any conflicts of interest. Look at all sides to a story and give equal coverage of a story. (In other words, be open minded.) Try to leave your opinions at home when you go to write. Finally, answer all questions that you have and do lots of research before hitting the event for your story.

- To maintain focus in the entire story, follow the 5 W's and the H, especially when you write your lead. In news stories, the most important information about an event is written first. This includes the who, what, where, when, why, and how. Remember this for your story, especially when you write your lead. The lead is usually the first sentence of a story that summarizes what happened quickly in less than 30 words. It usually includes the who, what, where, and when in one sentence. "Who did what where, at what time, (someone) said."

- Most important writing tip: write in SVO not OVS! Almost every news story in AP style format is written in SVO, or subject-verb-object. "Person did something", not "Something was done by this person." It saves a lot more words in the lead and in the story. All news stories need to be brief and to the point.

- Characteristics of a great summary lead: specifics (not vague, contains the most information), doesn't back in (strong leads don't have introductory phrases or clauses before the subject), conciseness (only put in the essential information in the beginning of a story), active voice (where a subject takes action, creating movement in the story and catches the reader's attention! once again, SVO not OVS)

- The "when" of your lead should usually go after the verb, to avoid confusing your readers.

- Handle each element and detail of your story one at a time. Don't try to blend them all at once in your story. Start with the most important, then break it down.

- Let the inverted pyramid be your guide for writing an interesting, pivotal news article. The inverted pyramid is the journalist's ultimate format and blueprint for writing in order to get a hold of readers. Your stories should be in this kind of style: most important information at the top (where you tell your story really quick), body (retelling the story with further details and interesting info. either chronologically or by order of importance), and the ending. However, you may want the story to just end where it is at the end of the body. You don't have to make a thoughtful statement at the end. Just let the remaining facts end your story.

- Double check your facts: names are spelled correctly, corporate or company names are also spelled correctly, titles of people or things (refer to the AP style book), numbers are correct, and any photos or graphics are relevant. Also, make sure you have places and dates are correct.

- Depending on what kind of story you're writing, you may or may not use a delayed lead. There are two kinds of leads that writers use: delayed and direct. Direct leads are the most frequently used leads in stories- they are basically the leads used in the above fashion (active voice, under 30 words, SVO, etc.). On the other hand, delayed leads are used in stories where the information isn't as important, but very interesting to learn about or second day stories. (Second day stories are follow up stories to a prior story that just covered the basic information. For instance, the "first day" story covered a very prominent or shocking event that happened yesterday, but didn't answer the how or why it happened. The second day story covers the rest of the interesting information.) Just decide whether or not to open your story with either lead style. You will see both styles used in publications such as The New York Times. But normally, delayed leads are used most in other sections of newspapers and direct leads are used primarilly in the news.

- Note on quotes: Know the quote rules! Make sure you get everything down word for word when quoting people. That, or you can use a partial quote. Also, remember when you quote the person, use the word said when in doubt. And, use said in the right order- "Blah blah blah blah blah," (person) said. NOT "...," said (person). You want to stay in active voice the entire time. The quote rules are listed in the blog below about newswriting rules.

- Covering events, speeches, conferences, meetings, panels, and others: Make sure you are well prepared, like going on a job interview, almost. Get any information about the event in advance. Prepare any questions you may have. Do plenty of research. Ask for clarity. Listen carefully, take good notes, check the details, and bring a tape recorder if you need to. And last, but definitely not least, look around at everyone else to find any sudden recations to anything.

- Another tip on writing about events you may cover: don't get correlation and causation mixed up! Correlation is when events happen at the exact same time and causation is where somethins causes something else (like a domino effect- event causes event). Make sure you get your facts straight and check your sources to get the correct insight of the events. Be careful of making assumptions! You may be wrong about something.

- Don't be a Becky Bloomwood (character from "Confessions of a Shopaholic", review of film coming soon). In other words, don't Google exactly what you're looking for and write things down word for word. Don't write about something without leaving your room. You can conduct research to look at what you're getting into, it can help you formulate questions. Don't be afraid to go out there and find an interesting event. In this case, it's alright to be curious!

Sorry if this is long, but I'm sure you can refer back to it when you can. These tips should help you out a lot and you'll be well on your way to writing the next featured news story, maybe.