THE WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, DUBAI

ARTICLE WRITING - SAMPLE

SUBJECT: ENGLISH
Newspaper Article Format 5 Parts of Newspaper Article
INDICATO DETAILS
SAMPLE
RS
Headline: This is a short, attentionDEVASTATING NEPAL QUAKE CAUSES
getting statement about the
HEART ACHE
event.
Byline:
This tells who wrote the story.
BY PHILOMENA JOHN
Lead
This has ALL of the who,
KATHMANDU - A powerful earthquake
paragrap what, when, where, why and
struck Nepal and sent tremors through
h:
how in it. A writer must find
northern India on Saturday, 25 April 2015,
(5Ws+H) the answers to these
killing more than 1,000 people, toppling a
questions and write them into 19th-century tower in the capital
the opening sentence(s) of the Kathmandu and touching off a deadly
article.
avalanche on Mount Everest.
Explanati After the lead paragraph has
There were reports of devastation in
on:
been written, the writer must
outlying, isolated mountainous areas
decide what other facts or
after the midday quake of magnitude 7.9,
details the reader might want
Nepals worst in 81 years, centred 80km
to know. The writer must make east of the second city, Pokhara.
sure that he/she has enough
As fears grew of a humanitarian disaster
information to answer any
in the impoverished Himalayan nation of
important questions a reader
28 million, an overwhelmed government
might have after reading the
appealed for foreign help. India was first
headline and the lead
to respond by sending in military aircraft
paragraph. This section can
with medical equipment and relief teams.
also include direct quotes from
witnesses or bystanders.
Addition
This information is the least
A police official said the death toll in
al
important. Thus, if the news
Nepal alone had reached 1,130, more
Informati article is too long for the space than half of them in the Kathmandu
on:
it needs to fill, it can be
Valley. A further 36 fatalities were
shortened without rewriting
reported in northern India, 12 in Chinese
any other part. This part can
Tibet and four in Bangladesh.
include information about a
similar event.