Journalists Meet – How to Write Print News
Newspaper reports need to be understood by people from a wide variety of educational backgrounds and cultures.
No doubt at all that as journalists, it is your professional rights to understandably tell the story to the readers – they pay for the information you give them.
To this, I now say it is abnormal writing long involved sentences that are full of unhelpful clauses – trust me!
Of course, as your teacher, it is my duty to bring out to you issues as opposed to professional reportage of news stories.
Take it or leave it, but go tell those who supervise you that teacher ‘Crimo’ has given you a guide to straightforward reporting.
In essence, it is advisable to use simple and straightforward English, the sort of English a busy person would prefer.
Remember also that busy people don’t have time crosschecking the meaning of big words used in stories.
That said; use active verbs, not passive. How do you do it? Well, take this as a real time example: ‘He sang a song’ not ‘A song was sung by him.’
Again, wherever possible, use simple tenses rather than ‘will have been,’ ‘would have been,’ and ‘might have been.’
You know what class; always make your stories look like new. In fact, it is said that ‘News is news if it is new.’ Never start a sentence with a long clause.
Now, please study the finer points of style as you write the news, it will help.
- Use specific words (red and blue) rather than general ones (brightly coloured).
- Use concrete words (rain and fog) rather than abstract ones (bad weather).
- Use plain words (began, said, end) not commenced, stated, termination.
- Use positive words (he was poor,) not negative ones (he was not rich) – the reader at once would want to know how ‘not-rich’ he was.
- Don’t lard the story with emotive or dramatic words (astonishing, staggering, sensational, and shock.)
I hope to see you in my next class, bye, bye!
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