Thursday, May 10, 2012

Writing News Pieces

The intro of a news story should not be more than 25 words. It should be powerful enough to get the eyes of the reader. It is very important that the intro should gain the reader's attention so that the reader will want to read the news story. The intro should be in a problem/ solution combination. It should contain a brief highlighted problem with a brief solution in the news story. For example, thousands of asthma patients can have a relief after the new drug has been approved by the NHS.

The second and third paragraphs of the news story must contain a lot of key facts such as What, When, How, Why, Who, etc.

The fourth and fifth paragraphs should contain a quote from the major part of the story. These paragraphs should contain an opinion or a comment. It should not contain any factual quote from the main source of the story. For example, Mr. John said; "This is outrageous. They are ruining this highway. They should clean it up right away."

Then comes the secondary quotes, it should be quoted in long news pieces. This will give a balance to the story. For an example, if you making a news story about a new asthma drug that has been launched in the market, you should include the voices from a variety of sources which can include, scientists, patients, GP's, drug companies, etc. The quotes from these sources can be directly or indirectly. Direct quotes can be for example Mr. John said:".....................". Indirect quotes are for example -Mr. John said the drug is very effective against asthma and has been tested to give fruitful results. Indirect quotes are the lines which the reporter paraphrases the lines of the source as if they have told them.

All these rules are followed by people writing on websites like Forestlaneshul, which has made it extremely popular to people searching for news from the world of entertainment, technology etc.