Journalism Writing Basics
Purpose
Journalism’s purpose is to inform readers about what is happening in their community. Journalists do this by going out and talking to people who are knowledgeable on those things that are happening, then condensing that information into digestible and understandable stories for their readers.
This presentation will present some general tips and unofficial rules to keep in mind when writing in the journalistic style.
You should spend the majority of your time reporting the story — gathering quotes, data, etc.
Stories should be well sourced, well reported, THEN well written. The best writer in the world cannot produce good journalism without solid notes and information.
You should always end up with way more information than you need, then work to cut it down into a manageable sized story.
Time usage
General tips
Use the third-person voice when writing news, features, and sports stories.
Avoid opinionated words in stories meant to inform about events.
Make sure to include a source’s full name and title on first reference, afterwards only refer to them by their last name.
General tips, continued
If a quote does not make sense standing on its own, paraphrase the information and attribute it to the source.
Keep your writing tight, avoid any extraneous words (e.g. unnecessary adjectives and adverbs). There’s an entire lesson with tips on how to condense your writing here.
Third Person Objective Voice
Journalists strive to be outside observers in relation to the people and events they cover. One way to help maintain that objectivity is to write in the third-person voice, which is to present the facts that are observed or corroborated without placing yourself in the story — do not use the “I” or “you” voice.
No Opinion in news writing
Make sure to avoid opinionated words in your reporting. Any opinion should be attributed to a source in some way.
Yes, it is unfortunate that someone got injured, but as a reporter you want to write about what happened and let the reader develop their feelings or opinion about the events based on those facts.
Clarify the meaning
Some sources are not strong communicators. In that case they may say things in a way that makes sense during the interview, but when you look back at the direct quote it is unclear.
Make sure the writing helps the reader clearly understand what is happening. If you need information from an unclear direct quote then paraphrase the information and attribute it to the source. More information on non-quote attribution can be found in this lesson.
Transparency
Make sure to let readers know where the content comes from using embedded links and phrases like “according to”.
If there is a conflict of interest (e.g. if someone being covered is on staff) it should be noted, and that person should not be involved in that particular story or coverage.
Keep it short!
Keep sentences short and simple.
Aim for two or three sentence paragraphs to help break up the text when it is placed on the page or on the screen.
Don’t bury the lead!
In a hard news story the story should provide information about the following* in the first paragraph:
*Explain the Why and How throughout the rest of the story unless they are simple, in that case note them with the other 4 Ws.
Don’t bury the lead!
In other stories use the lead to grab the reader’s attention, but make sure the four Ws are answered within the first few paragraphs.
Direct quotes
Direct quotes should be able to stand alone. If you are having to include the question in your writing, work on rephrasing your interview questions.
Everything should be in past tense (e.g. “Quote,” Source said).
Use the said dialogue tag with the structure [Source] said — not said [Source].
Begin a sentence with a quote followed by the dialogue tag. If it’s a longer quote you can break the quote up by placing the dialogue tag after the first sentence of the quote (e.g. “Here’s a longer quote,” Source said. “I had some further explanation following my initial sentence, so that’s added after the dialogue tag.”)
Always begin a new paragraph after a quote.
When to use direct quotes
Direct quotes should not be used to convey factual information, instead you should paraphrase and attribute that information.
Direct quotes should demonstrate the speaker’s voice for the reader, and provide color to the story.
Do not repeat what you have already written in the story with a direct quote.