NEWS

Writing
Jean T. Loquillano,Ph.D.
What is NEWS?

🞆Oral or written report of a past, present,

or future event
🞆Factual, truthful, accurate, unbiased and
interesting
NEWS WRITING

I. Structure of news stories

II. The lead
III.Quotations and attributions
IV. Pointers in writing news story
V. Interviewing and News writing
exercise
Types of News Structure

1. Straight news story

2. News-Feature Story
3. Speech report, quote, and interview story
4. Fact story
5. Action story
Structure of news stories

🞆5Ws + 1H, or Who, What, When,

Where, Why, and How
🞆Inverted pyramid
Straight News Story
Inverted pyramid

🞆Traditional format for straight news since

mid 1800s
🞆Beginning of story tells most important
information
🞆 Other important information or data
presented in descending order
Lead or lede

May contain
all 5Ws and
1H
Secondary or support
lead

Explains or
complements lead
Details or
particulars

Give flesh to story;

all available facts
included,
especially those
answering why and
how
Background

Provides relevant
past events about
story; may be
deleted, if space is
limited
The lead

⚫ Lead answers most significant question based on

the facts of story
⚫ This could be a single word, phrase, a brief
sentence, an entire paragraph, or a series of
paragraphs.
⚫ The main function is not only to introduce the
news story but to give the questions of the
reader.
Types of leads
Traditional Leads

Alternative leads (Novelty or

Grammatical Leads)
Traditional Leads

Who lead: U.S. President Barack Obama

yesterday said he will visit the Philippines in
November.
What lead: The oil price hike will trigger
higher food prices, economists from the
University of the Philippines said in a
symposium last Tuesday.
WHO LEAD
WHAT LEAD
Traditional
Leads

When lead: Ten days to go before the National

Elections.
Where lead: Luneta Park was filled with g-
string clad men last Saturday in an effort to
raise awareness for cultural minorities.
Traditional leads

Why lead: A broken water pipe was the cause

for the flooding along Sikatuna Ave., Quezon
City yesterday.
How lead: Using his bare hands to kill the
snake, the soldier saved a six-year-old boy
from being bitten.
WHY LEAD
WHY LEAD
 Alternative leads

Punch lead – A brief and witty statement. Like a

good joke, it’s a punchline that catches readers off
guard.
Watching television can be deadly.
Joselito D, Cruz, 35, was beaten to death when he
changed the television channel against the wishes
of the other patrons at the Lopaluza Bar along Taft
Avenue last night.
 Alternative leads

Picture or descriptive lead – A vivid word picture

of an event.
Clutching his five-year-old son, Pedro Sison, 32,
could not control his tears to roll down on his
cheek when he heard that his wife, Marivic, 30,
and their two-year-old daughter, were among those
killed in the Manor Hotel fire incident in Quezon
City.
 Alternative leads

Question lead – Uses a question which at the same

time serves as key idea of the story.

Is a tuition increase really necessary?

A tuition increase can be avoided next year, if the
school manages to raise P500,000 from the
newspaper drive, Principal Francis B. Ochoa said
yesterday.
 Alternative leads

Quotation lead – Uses an important or bold remark of statement

from a speech or an interview.

“We will win the championships,” coach Virgilio Santos

confidently declared yesterday.
-
“All these people who are using my name. I had them
investigated – all of them.”
That was the reason, President Joseph Ejercito Estrada said
yesterday, that he ordered the Bureau of Customs to investigate
his supposed close associate Lucio Lao Co and 13 other
suspected smugglers.
 Alternative leads

Sequence lead – A series of paragraphs arranged

chronologically
“By five in the morning, she had already dressed her two
daughters, Cynthia 4, and Miriam 2, for a Sunday mass.
At seven, the three of them were seen attending mass in the
chapel.
At nine, when they returned to their shanty at Dagat-
Dagatan, Maria Dorado, 46, despondent after having been
abandoned by her husband, strangled her two daughters. She
herself committed suicide.
 Alternative leads

Staccato lead – Series of phrases, punctuated by

commas, period or dashes.

Patient labor force. Calm management sector. Quick

thinking mediators. All of these brought down the
number of strike notices in the country by 14 percent
this year, belying claims that increased labor tensions
are bound to occur as a result of the economic crisis.
 Alternative leads

Summary lead – Attempts to give whole summary of the

story in the lead.
Sen. Franklin Drilon said yesterday Interior Secretary
Ronaldo Puno would have “a hard time” getting past the
Commission on Appointments because of a memorandum
he had issued that could impair local autonomy.

A new treaty that allows the United States to maintain its

military presence in the Philippines was signed yesterday by
Manila and Washington.
Pointers in Writing the News Story

▪ Write the story as soon as you have gathered data.

▪ Play up a dominant point.
▪ Be accurate.
▪ Avoid editorializing.
▪ Mention authority or source of news .
a. It concerns opinion rather than facts
b. It is about controversial issues.
c. It announces new regulation
Pointers in Writing the News Story

▪ Present facts without bias.

▪ Names should be given in full name first mentioned.
Thereafter, use surname or Mr./Miss/Mrs. or any special
title.
▪ Avoid “coloring” words.
▪ Write one-idea, mostly one-sentence paragraphs.
▪ Avoid a series of very short paragraphs. Average length is
35 words per paragraph.
Pointers in Writing the News Story

▪ Write mostly short sentences. Keep them simple and clear.

▪ Eliminate superfluous words.
▪ Use simple specific words; adjectives and adverbs should give way to
verbs and nouns
▪ Write a good lead.
-Avoid beginning the lead with articles A, An, The or expletives
“there, it”
- Do not cram the 5 ”Ws” in the opening sentence.

▪ Prefer the active voice rather than passive voice, except when object of
the verb is more important than the doer
🞆FOR RSPC QUALIFIERS
 Quotations and attributions

⚫ If you repeat the exact words which people themselves

used you will reduce the risk of misreporting what they
say.
⚫ When we give a person's exact words our readers can see
both the ideas and the way they were presented.
⚫ People often use lively language when they speak.
Quotes allow you to put that lively language directly into
your story.
Types

⚫ Direct quotation
⚫ A quotation within another quotation
⚫ Partial quotation
⚫ Paraphrase
 Direct quotation

⚫ Someone’s exact words

⚫ Complete sentences
⚫ Attribution is set off in different quotes (beginning,
middle, or end of quotation)
⚫ Attribution can fall in middle of quote between two
independent clauses, or two complete sentences
⚫ If quote three or more sentences and attribution at the
beginning, comma becomes colon
 Example of Direct quotation

⚫ “I am happy, I can’t wait for next year,” he

said.
( Attribution falls at the end)

⚫ He said: “I am happy. I can’t wait for next

year.”
( Attribution falls at the beginning)

⚫ “I am happy, “ he said, adding “ I can’t wait

for next year.”
( Attribution falls at the middle)
A quotation within another
quotation

⚫ Speaker is quoting someone else or citing a

composition title; you need single quote marks.
Examples:
⚫ “ I love reading ‘Harry Potter’,” he said.

⚫ “ I could hear her say ‘this is awesome’,” he said.

Partial quotation

⚫ Reporter didn’t catch entire sentence

⚫ Reporter wanted to quote exactly the most important part of
sentence
⚫ Person being quoted wasn’t speaking in complete sentences
Example:
“ I can honestly say that the rally……is a useless
exercise,” Principal Carlo Franca said.
Paraphrase

⚫ For comprehensibility
⚫ For length and available space
⚫ For bad grammar
⚫ For profanity
 Example of Paraphrase

“ To you budding journalists, you need to observe these three Rs

as your guideposts: read, reflect and report,” Dr. Neric O. Acosta
said. (Direct quotation)

⚫Paraphrase:
Dr. Neric O. Acosta elaborated the very crucial role of
journalists. As such, the campus journalists must engage
themselves in reading because through exposures to various
books, ideas, or information they can utilize the power of their
imaginations before they can write.
WRITESHOP

Write a news about the Regional Enhancement

Training for School Paper advisers and Campus
Journalists.
Consider the following:
1.Use at least 300 words.
2.Use summary lead.
3.Use direct quotations and attributions in your
body.