Writing a journalistic style in simple steps Journalistic writing goes straight to the point. In this respect, it is quite unlike other forms of written English, such as novels and short stories, committee reports, letters and theses. All these are written primarily for people with the time to consider and absorb what has been written. ______________________________________________________ Top priority Journalism is written in a way which sets out clearly what is the top priority news, what is the next most newsworthy, and so on. This makes it easier for readers and listeners to understand. Readers will generally read less than half of most stories; there are very few stories indeed of which they will read every word. Similarly, people do not listen intently to every word of a radio or television news bulletin. Unless the first sentence of each item interests them, they allow their minds to wander until they hear something that interests them. The way journalism is written therefore has to do two things:   It has to sell the story to the casual reader or listener. It has to give the main point of the story very quickly, so that even if the reader moves on after one or two paragraphs, or if the listener stops listening after the first sentence or two, they will still have a fair idea of what the story was about. The inverted pyramid This way of writing in a journalistic style, with the main news at the start and the rest of the detail following in decreasing order of importance, is known as the inverted pyramid. A pyramid has a broad base and tapers towards its top; the journalistic style is just the opposite, with a broad top and tapering towards the base. It is therefore called an inverted (or upside-down) pyramid. This "shape" of the journalistic story, with a "broad" top and a "narrow" base, is in the weight of the story itself. The first paragraph, which is called the intro, contains the most newsworthy part of the story - the newest, most unusual, most interesting and most significant - told clearly and simply. This is followed by a full explanation and all the details. The most newsworthy parts of the story will be written nearest to the top of the story. The later part of the story - the tapering point of the inverted pyramid - contains detail which is helpful, but not essential. Here is an example of a short news story in the inverted pyramid; structure: A Palauli woman whose body was found in the sea is believed to have drowned. Police say the 35-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, was an epileptic. Her body was found floating in the sea near Palauli, Savai`i, on Monday. A post mortem examination will be conducted today. This format has a practical advantage, too. If it is necessary to cut a number of lines, to fit the story into the available space on a page or into the available time in a news bulletin, it is best if the least important facts are at the end. They can then be cut without harming the story. It will be clear from this that one of the most important skills of a journalist is writing the intro. Introduction The intro should be direct, simple and attention-grabbing. It should contain the most important elements of the story - but not the whole story. The details can be told later. It should arouse the interest of the reader or listener, and be short. Normally it should be one sentence of not more than 20 words for print media, and fewer for radio and television. The perfect intro     The intro should be based on the most newsworthy aspect of the story. The intro should be kept short, uncluttered and relevant to the main story. It should be simple grammatically. The intro should make the reader want to read the rest of the story. The intro should be appropriate in style to the story. The first hurdle has been cleared when you have written your intro. You now have to tackle the rest of the story to ensure the following paragraphs live up to the promise of the intro. Simple steps in writing a journalistic style The amount of detail which you include will vary from story to story Information Here is an example of ‘Cyclone Victor’. This is the information you are given: At 2 a.m. yesterday morning, meteorologists at the Nadi Weather Centre detected a cyclone developing rapidly near Nauru and moving quickly south-west across the Pacific towards the Solomon Islands. They named the cyclone "Victor". At 3 a.m., they contacted the Solomon Islands government, warning of the approach of Cyclone Victor. Government officials immediately put emergency plans into operation. They warned all shipping in the area of the cyclone's approach. They broadcast warnings on the radio and alerted the police, who in turn sent officers to warn the people. By 10 a.m., winds in Honiara were blowing at more than 140 kilometres per hour. At about midday, the centre of the cyclone passed directly over Honiara before tracking into the Coral Sea, where it blew itself out. In Honiara, more than 20 houses were destroyed and a number of other buildings sustained considerable structural damage. More than 100 people are now homeless. Six people were killed. Another 18 people have been treated in hospital for minor injuries. Mopping-up operations have started in Honiara. The emergency services are still awaiting news from outlying districts but believe that Honiara has been the worst affected. Police say that of the six people who died, three men drowned when their car was blown off the road into a river, and two women and a man were killed by flying debris. Key points These are the seven key points from which you might select: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) Nadi meteorologists warn Solomon Islands government of approach of Cyclone Victor. Solomon Islanders themselves warned of approaching cyclone. More than 20 homes destroyed and other buildings sustained considerable structural damage. More than 100 people homeless. Six people killed. Eighteen people treated for minor injuries. Three drowned and three killed by flying debris. You might decide that (e) and (d) are the most newsworthy key points because they best fill the four criteria for news:  Is it new?    Is it unusual? Is it interesting or significant? Is it about people? You might decide to use key point (e) in preference to (g) because they are about the same fact but (e) is shorter for your intro. Options You have three choices at this point for writing the rest of the story. You could tell it chronologically that means in the time order in which the events happened. Or you can tell it in descending order of importance of the key points, all the way down to the least newsworthy at the end. Or you can use a combination of these two approaches. Whichever option you choose, there must be a clear logic behind the way the story is told. This will make it easy for the reader to follow and understand it. You must choose a clear and simple sequence for telling the facts and giving relevant opinions. In this way your readers will not become confused. To return to the Cyclone Victor example, let us choose to give the main key points in descending order of importance and then to tell the story in chronological order to give the minor details. This will demonstrate both of the other approaches. Ranking the key points We have already chosen (e) and (d) for our intro. In what order should we put the other key points? Clearly the deaths need explaining if possible, as does the damage to people's homes. Because lives are more important than homes, let us take (g) as our next key point, followed by (f) which is about injuries: Three men drowned when their car was blown off the road into a river. Two women and a man were killed by flying debris, and a further 18 people were treated in hospital for minor injuries. Notice that key point (g) is split into two halves. This is partly to stop the paragraph from being too long and partly to emphasise the unusual nature of the deaths of the three men in the car. It is less unusual for people to be killed by flying debris in the middle of a cyclone, and we filled that paragraph out a bit by including details of the injured. Now tell your readers more about the homeless: More than 20 homes were destroyed and a number of other buildings were badly damaged. Notice here that we changed the word "houses" to "homes", since "homes" are houses with people living in them. We also changed the phrase "sustained considerable structural damage" to "were badly damaged". As in the intro, you must avoid overloading any sentence in your story with unnecessary words. The rewritten phrase is shorter and simpler to understand. Telling the rest of the story The remaining two key points are facts about the cyclone itself - how it was spotted and how people were warned. There are clearly lots of details which can be given here. It would be possible to write the rest of the story by choosing more key points from the information left, ranking them according to newsworthiness then writing them in order. This is, however, very complicated and may confuse your reader. A much simpler alternative is to now go back to the beginning of the event and tell it in chronological order, as things happened. Before you do this, you have tell our audience that you are going to change from the key points method of news writing to the chronological method, otherwise they might think that your next paragraph is your next key point (although our readers or listeners would not use that term). The easiest way of doing that is to provide a kind of summary to the first segment of our story. For example: The emergency services are still awaiting news from outlying districts but believe that Honiara has been the worst hit. This sentence also tells the reader that you have given the most important news. Your next paragraph tells them that you are going back to the beginning of the story: Cyclone Victor was first detected at 2 a.m. yesterday by staff at the Nadi Weather Centre. They plotted it travelling south-west across the Pacific towards the Solomon Islands. An hour later, they contacted the Solomon Islands government to warn them of the cyclone's approach. Government officials put emergency plans into operation. They radioed ships in the area and broadcast warnings to Solomon Islanders over the radio. Police officers were sent out to warn people. By 10 a.m., winds in the capital, Honiara, were blowing at more than 140 kilometres per hour. Two hours later the centre of Cyclone Victor passed over Honiara before tracking into the Coral Sea, where it blew itself out. Mopping-up operations have now started in Honiara. Now you have told the story of the cyclone, at the same time bringing your audience up to date with latest developments. The final version The final version of your cyclone story should now look like this: Six people were killed and more than 100 left homeless when Cyclone Victor hit the Solomon Islands yesterday. Three men drowned when their car was blown off the road into a river, in the national capital, Honiara. Two women and a man were killed by flying debris, and a further 18 people are being treated in hospital for minor injuries. The names of the dead and injured are not being released until relatives have been informed. More than 20 homes were destroyed and a number of other buildings were badly damaged. The emergency services are still awaiting news from outlying districts. However, they believe that Honiara has been the worst hit. Communications between Honiara and other areas have been disrupted by the cyclone. Cyclone Victor was first detected at 2 a.m. yesterday by staff at the Nadi Weather Centre. They plotted it travelling south-west across the Pacific towards the Solomon Islands. An hour later, they contacted the Solomon Islands government to warn them of the cyclone's approach. Government officials put emergency plans into operation. They radioed ships in the area and broadcast warnings to Solomon Islanders over the radio. Police officers were sent out to warn people. By 10 a.m., winds in the capital, Honiara, were blowing at more than 140 kilometres per hour. Two hours later the centre of Cyclone Victor passed over Honiara before tracking into the Coral Sea, where it blew itself out. Mopping-up operations have now started in Honiara. TO SUMMARISE: News stories put the main point first, with other information following in order of importance, finishing with the least important. This helps readers and listeners by identifying the main news and saving them time and effort.    Have you chosen the key points? Have you ranked them in order when writing your story? Has your story answered the six questions Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? Have you presented the facts in an orderly manner and provided links between different segments?
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