The Basic News Story Too many stories fail to answer the readers most challenging question: so what'

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The Basic News StoryToo many stories fail to
answer the readers most challenging question so
what.- Roy Peter Clark, p. 22-23 of Rich text
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The 6 stories for this class

• Emphasis on the Beat
• Good reporting
• Strong writing
• Less on story type

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Read, Read, Read

• If you want to learn how to write newspaper
  stories, you need to read lots of newspaper
  stories.

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Coaching Tips for Basic News Story

• State the focus, the main idea, of your story in
  one sentence (35 words or less).
• To find your lead, ask yourself What is the most
  important or most interesting.

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Coaching Tips for Basic News Story

• Write the story as though you were telling a
  friend.
• Consider how your story will affect readers.

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Coaching Tips for Basic News Story

• Visualize your story with text, graphics, and
  photographs.
• Make sure your quotes dont repeat transitions.

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Coaching Tips for Basic News Story

• Test the quality of your quotes Are they good
  enough to be used as pull quotes?
• What is the main impression you want to leave
  readers with?

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Whats the Story About?

• Sentence as a guide (Nut Graph).
• The paragraph that contains the core information
  about the story and tells the reader why the
  story is important.
• 35 words or less.
• How would you tell a friend.
• Whats missing?
• Whats confusing?

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Lucky 11 Breakdown of a News Story

• Headline
• Lead
• Backup for the Lead
• Nut Graph
• Lead Quote
• Impact
• Attribution
• Background
• Elaboration
• Ending
• Visuals

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Headline

• The line on the top of the story
• that tells the reader.
• what the story is about.
• Written by editor.
• Communicates what you
• think the story is about.
• Deck Heads and
• Summary Blurbs.

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Lead

• Hook that tells the reader what the story is
  about.
• Entices reader
• Summary Leads (5 Ws H)
• Hard Leads
• Soft Leads

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Backup for Lead

• Lead should be supported with facts, quotes, etc.
  that substantiate the lead.

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Nut Graph

• A sentence or paragraph that states the focus or
  main point of the story.
• Often appears in feature stories, usually by the
  3rd to 5th
• paragraph.

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Lead Quote

• The first quote that backs up the lead.
• Often the strongest quote you have.

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Impact

• How does this affect
• readers?
• Sometimes in lead
• or nut graph.
• Other times its a
• separate paragraph.

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Attribution

• Where did you get the information?
• Who told you the facts?
• 2 skydivers killed as chute fails
• They hit power lines, snapping utility poles,
  before they crashed just before noon across from
  the Washington Township Home Depot.
• By Joel Bewley
• Inquirer Staff Writer
• A beginning skydiver and an experienced
  instructor connected by a harness crashed to
  their deaths yesterday in Gloucester County after
  their parachute malfunctioned, police said.
• After the main chute failed to open, the reserve
  deployed but not soon enough to catch air and
  open, witnesses and police said.

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Background

• Sometimes additional background is needed for
  readers to understand the story.

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Elaboration

• Should have more than one source for a story.
• Want balance and fairness.
• Need other points of view.

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Ending/Conclusion

• Future action.
• Statement or quote that summarizes (dont
  repeat).
• More elaboration.
• College Life 101 Dramatically Stark Orientation
• By KAREN W. ARENSON
• Mary Schmidt Campbell, the Tisch Schools dean
  and one of the N.Y.U. faculty and staff members
  who saw the performance, said she had been
  educated too I guess there really is a lot I
  dont know about students lives outside the
  classroom.

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Visuals

• 98 of readers are drawn to a photograph on a
  newspaper page.
• Pull Quotes.
• Fact Boxes.
• Infographic.

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The Basic News Story

• Need to learn the parts to understand how to
  create the whole.
• Develop good habits from the start.
• Read other peoples work.
• Without a strong lead, the rest of the story
  wont matter much.
• Use Inverted Pyramid Style.
• Edit carefully.