Writing the News: A Guide for Print Journalists

Contents

Preface to the Third Edition

1. Writing for Newspapers

Early newspaper style. Structuring the news. Stripped-down prose. Wire service style. The electronic revolution. Interpretative news. The electronic newsroom.

 

2. Writing the Lead

Lead structure. Lead language. Other considerations in lead writing: attribution and identification.

 

3. Developing the Story

Secondary leads. The fractured paragraph: key words, transitional devices and pronoun references. Information weaving. Ending the story.

 

4. The Elements of News Style

Choosing the right word. Writing good sentences: sentence style, sentence criteria.

 

5. The Spoken Word in Print

To quote or not to quote: direct quotes, paraphrase, accuracy. The mechanics of quoting: attribution, partial quotes, substitutes for "said."

 

6. Varieties of the Basic Structure

The multielement story. The "hourglass" structure. The speech story: the advance text, note taking, speech story structure. The meeting story. The obituary.

 

7. News in Context

Making connections. Providing context. Localizing news. Using background. Developing news.

 

8. "Featurizing" the News

Traditional alternatives: page brighteners or "brights," sidebars. Contemporary alternatives: the new graphics, featurized news, weekly feature styles.

 

9. Writing the Feature Story

Feature techniques. Feature development. Forms of the feature: news features, human interest stories, personal profiles, narratives.

Suggested Reading

Index