In order to write your story of news, you will need sufficient

information. How do you collect all the information you need to

complete your story?

Fret not. Writing news stories isn't particularly difficult. It does take
practice and not everyone will be an expert but if you follow the
guidelines below you should be able to create effective news items
without too much stress.

Here is how you use the Husband with 5 Wives.

How? Who?   What?   Where?   When?   Why?   

A good news story will provide answers to each of these questions. For example, if
you wish to cover a story about a local school’s debate team entering a competition
you will need to answer these questions:

 Who is the coach? Who are the prominent debaters? Who are the
supporters?
 What is the topic for the debate? What is the competition?
 Where is the competition?
 When is the competition? How long have they been preparing? Are there
any other important time factors?
 Why are they entering this particular competition? If it's relevant, why the
team was founded?
 How are they going to enter the competition? Do they need to fundraise?
How much training and preparation is required? What will they need to do to
win?
When you are at the site of the event or carrying an
interview, open up all your senses to maximize the information
you can gather.

 Vision – Observe the place, people and the environment. Sometimes you
might learn about things people are not willing tell. Scrutinize your
interviewee closely during the interview. If you see him/her hesitating, you
will know that there is more to the story, but he/she is not telling it.
 Hearing – Listen carefully while you are talking to someone. Do not make
any mistakes of what they said. Preferably record your interviews.
 Taste – If it is a food fair, why don’t you taste some of the food to tell your
readers about it?
 Touch – If the event you are covering is a garage sale, get into contact with
the things and let your reading know how they were.
 Smell – Smell is another sense that you use to ‘take’ your readers to the
event itself. By using appropriate vocabulary, you can let them to imagine
the environment at the event.
Special tips

- The event – Know all you can about the event. Where it
occurred? How long it took place?
E.g.: If it was a Canteen Day, get to know of the entire
event on the schedule and when is takes place.
- People involved – Find out who where the people involved
in the event and how they were involved.
E.g.: If there were doctors, firemen and victims
involved in a flood-rescue, find out what they did.
- Keep it Objective - You must not take any side. If there is
more than one side to the story, cover them all.
- Quote People – Quote some parts of your interview to let
your readers believe your story.
For example: "We're really excited about this competition,"
says Coach Bobby.

Now, roll up your sleeves and let us get some work done.
Power up your computers and go to http://www.windatmy-back.com/game/game-
welcome.html

You are Grace Bailey, the junior journalist. You must now follow the four stories
to their end. Pick up as many items and talk to as many people as you can. You
never know what or who could be the key to an important clue! Good Luck!
Now that you have learned how to gather information to write a news
story, let us see if your have them all in your finger tips!

1. Which of the following covers all the questions you need to ask to
collect sufficient information for a news story?

how, what, who, when, where

why, when, how, who, where

where, how, when, what, why

--who, what, why, when, where, how

2. Why do you have to have to scrutinize you interviewee closely

during the interview.

To get their full attention

To ensure he/she answer the questions relevantly

To remember their physical appearance

-- To interpret the non-verbal gestures

3. Recording an interview is more plausible than to take down notes.

Why is this?

To be able to replay easily

To make it easy for the interviewer

To save time
To make no mistakes of what was said

4. " The scent of pine trees and fresh air teased the tip of my nose. Glittering splashes of water
tumbled over smooth rocks, the stream pouring ..."

-It’s Tough Growing Up (Dalrymple and Foor, 2009)

The sense not used in the passage is

Smell

Vision

Hearing

--Taste

5. Why it is important to quote people in your news story?

To make it more interesting
To include the people from the event in the news story
To add variety to the story
--To convince the truth to the readers

6. Which of the following reflects an objective news story?

Interviewing people you can reach only
Emphasizing what is most seen
--Allow all parties involved to respond
Editing the information to suit your story

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