Journalistic Writing Syllabus
Course Description: Journalistic writing is a style of writing. That style is brief, factual, objective, direct, and of interest. This course teaches how to write in that style. Included in this course is work involving grammar, vocabulary, documentation, attribution, evaluation of source material, interviewing, editing, revising until a piece of of publishable quality, and researching.
Students will analyze news articles to understand how evidence, sources, and opinion are used in journalism. Most of the writing is expository. Some of the writing is persuasive. Students will use primary source documents and interviews to write and revise research papers, editing pieces to a publishable standard. Some student writing will appear in the local paper and/or school yearbook. This class meets Iowa Core English language arts writing standards.
Journalistic writing is a preferred style for both writing and reading for many people. It’s writing that gets to the point. It’s short. Many people like that. It can be done wrong. This class will help you do it right.
Value of Newsworthiness by Gatlung and Ruge, 1973
Value of Newsworthiness by Shoemaker et al., 1987
Contributors:Christopher Arnold, Tony Cook, Dennis Koyama, Elizabeth Angeli, Joshua M. Paiz Last Edited: 2017-10-02 11:21:16
Sources
Campbell, Vincent. Information Age Journalism: Journalism in an International Context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. 117-123.
Fleming, Carole, et al. An Introduction to Journalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2006. 4-26.
What is Journalistic Writing?
Journalistic Writing is a style of prose used in reporting associated with newspapers, journals, and other publications. The style has has subtleties that vary between different subjects and audiences, but the most general style is referred to as News Style and is used in the front page section of newspapers.
The most important part of Journalistic Writing is dissemination of information. An article must relay the "5 W's" (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and often: How) as quickly as possible. In general this means that every subsequent paragraph is of less significance than the previous one. The author's voice needs to be almost nonexistent and speak of impartiality. To do so, an article should be "shown" rather than "told" by the reporter. This is achieved by allowing the story be told almost exclusively by the sources. In general this call for balance within an article means that slanted sources must be offset by their opposing viewpoints. In newspaper writing this usually means that for every quote with an opinion, the reporter ought to seek out one with a different opinion.
Journalistic articles are often characterized by their "angle." This refers to the way in which the information relayed by the article is presented. If a story is a feature on an athlete, is the information told by a description of one race? Does it give a historical account of how they came from difficult background and worked hard to succeed? is the story about where the athlete's goals are for the future? Maybe the story is interested in showing the side of the athlete not associated with their sport. These angles develop while the reporter gathers information, usually they arise when quoting multiple individuals and a trend becomes clear. The angle of a story is the wedge that allows a reader to break into the actual content.
A key part of any journalistic article is the opening: part of something called a "lead" or "lede." The lead serves to capture a reader's interest and make them want to continue reading. This can be done with shocking statistics, a vivid description of a scene, or an interesting detail. An interesting lead usually has lots of detail and sentences of varying length. A good lead will determine if the rest of the article is read. Articles must be relevant and have strong leads or they will be half-read. This is the reason that journalists will place more important information in earlier paragraphs.
Articles usually have fairly abrupt endings. When all the information has been relayed, the reporter may often close out an article with a few key facts or peripheral details. There is little room for sweeping conclusions or surmising any meaning out of journalistic articles because that involves author voice in a way not allowed by the style.
News articles are NOT informational articles. News articles do NOT go into details. Informational articles go into details.
Journalistic writing is NOT newspaper writing. They are almost identical but are not the same. Both are a style of writing. Both use the same style of get to the point.
Journalistic writing can be used anywhere -- though it probably shouldn’t (who wants to read the lush, creative pages of your favorite story as a newspaper article?). Journalistic writing is any and all writing that is intended to be short, informative, supported, factual, and unbiased.
Newspaper writing can NOT be used anywhere. Newspaper writing is used exclusively for newspapers. Newspaper writing is journalistic writing. Journalistic writing is newspaper writing. Journalistic writing becomes newspaper writing only when it is actually intended to be printed in a news source.
Newspaper writing has two forms: beware surveillance and instrumental surveillance. Beware surveillance is hard news: blood, 911, crime, accidents, injuries; or new policies, new budgets, new laws, new regulations, new ____ that affect a population/town/state; or the latest sports results or the latest local activities. All beware surveillance stories are time sensitive, meaning that people will lose interest in them over time. Instrumental surveillance is soft news: tips for surviving the holidays, decorating ideas for a fresh look, recipes for Thanksgiving/July 4/pizza, what to look for in aging parents, signs that your toddler may need hearing or vision checks. All instrumental surveillance stories can be reprinted annually.
Good journalism has always been associated with competent writing and competent writing has always required an easy command of correct language and style. The style of a writer is an involuntary and intimate expression of his personality. The writer should match the mood of the audience. Style must be most unobtrusive.
There are many ground rules for good writing. For example, good writing follows the ABCD principle: Accuracy, Brevity, Conciseness and Directness. A careful writer must remember the distinction between denotation (direct meaning) and connotation (suggested meaning). The use of active voice should be avoided as it leads to brevity. The use of prepositions leads to the danger of circumlocution. The principle of innate selection and control of words most appropriate to the context must be followed.
Today's Style
Newspaper style in recent years has moved increasingly in the direction of uncluttered writing. Simple, direct sentences are desired. Complex and compound sentences may provide the best vehicle for thought under certain circumstances, but also increase the probability of ambiguity. The desire for economy in words has produced tight, swiftly paced writing that has proved to be a boon to newspaper reading. Loose writing is inefficient writing that leads to wasting of words.
Tight writing is characterized by the absence of 'breaks' (commas etc.) in the flow of simple sentences. But tightening that leads to omitting should not be overdone.
Today's journalistic style has the following characteristics:
Compact, usually short sentences, every word selected and placed for maximum effect.
Short, terse paragraphs, each complete in itself and capable of being removed without destroying the sense of the story.
Conciseness, directness and simplicity through elimination of unnecessary words and phrases
Factualness without editorial opinions and dogmatic expressions
'Strong' verbs and nouns preferred over hackneyed words and expressions
Observance of grammatical and word usage rules.
Conciseness
The objective of effective journalistic writing should be to avoid cumbersomeness without becoming repetitive. Relaxing the rule that all of the 5 W's and H (Who, Why, What, Where, When and How) must be included in the first paragraph of the news story leads to uncluttered writing.
Simplicity:
This is obtained by avoiding 'elegant' words:
1- About is better than with reference to
2- agreement is better than concordance
3- burned is better than destroyed by fire
4- if is better than in the event of
5- meeting is better than rendezvous and so on.
Active and Passive Voice:
The active voice is usually more emphatic than passive voice. However, sometimes the later is preferred to the former:
e.g: Henry Stroke has been appointed chairman of the Republican campaign committee.
In other cases, the active voice is preferable:
e.g.: Weak: The accident was witnessed by ten people
Better: Ten people witnessed the accident.
Leads/Intros
A lead is the first paragraph or introduction of a news story that gives the summary of the news to follow. Different kinds of leads can be used to make the news story readable and interesting. Some of the different kinds of leads are:
1- The 5 W's and one H: As already mentioned earlier in the chapter, the who, why, what, where, when and how of the news need not be mentioned all together. A judicious use of the necessary W's and H makes this kind of lead interesting.
2- The Quotation Lead: In reporting speeches, public statements, etc. it is always better to typify the feature in the reporter's own words rather than by a direct quotation, e.g. :
Weak: "A sharp decline in mortality rates, medical progress and greater economic prosperity have enabled welfare agencies to solve most of their problems except that of the emotionally disturbed child", Horace V. Updike, Council of Social Welfare director said yesterday.
Better: "The emotionally disturbed child is the 'No. 1 problem' facing welfare agencies today, Horace V. Updike, Council Of Welfare director, said yesterday."
3- The Question Lead: Ordinarily a reporter should answer, not ask questions in his news stories. To do otherwise merely delays telling the news, as in the case of a lead beginning, "What causes emotional apathy?" followed by a summary of a new idea advanced by some authority on the subject.
4- The Staccato Lead: When the time element is to be emphasized, this lead is used. It consists of a series of phrases, punctuated either by periods or dashes and usually is a form of descriptive lead. E.g.: Almost thirty years ago-back in 1973-in a different era-in a different life, after years of happiness in her simple home, the light went out of Mrs X's life -she became stone blind. Torturous, long years passed and suddenly her prayers were answered - Mrs X could see.
5- The Explosive Lead: Similar to the Staccato lead but consisting of grammatically complete sentences, the explosive lead is usually used for feature articles.
6- The Dialogue Lead: Minor court stories with strong human interest can be handled effectively by this kind of lead. The lead consists of the dialogue between two people and then followed by a summary or play-by-play account of the event.
7- The Cartridge Lead: When war is declared or ends, when a famous personality dies or on similar important occasions, it is customary to tell the gist of the news in the fewest possible words. E.g. Mayor Charles Canterbury is dead. This style should not be frequently used but reserved for special occasions.
8- The Punch Lead: Similar to the Cartridge lead but not so abrupt or definite is the Punch lead.
9- The Descriptive Lead: A graphic description of a person, place or object to give the tone or feeling necessary for proper understanding and appreciation. The best descriptive leads are written by eyewitnesses.
10- The Parody Lead: Popular songs, titles of best-sellers, newly coined phrases etc. may be used while still fresh, usually in parodied form to brighten an occasional news story lead.
Question: What is the difference between writing that is done to inform a reader and writing that is done to agree with a reader? What is writing that is done to reinforce pre-existing ideas (prejudices) that a reader has?
A journalist must (1) instantly grab a reader’s attention, (2) explain the event so that all readers understand it, and (3) explain the event so that readers want to understand the event.
What is journalism? Great journalism and great writing are different. All journalist must be good writers. Great writing does not equal great journalism. Many great writers (of novels, plays, movie scripts) would be terrible journalists. Many great journalists are mediocre writers. Why? Answer: Purpose. The purpose of journalists is to expose an answer. The purpose of journalists is to explain that answer so that readers feel, think, believe that they are directly affected by the content of the story -- and to do so in few words. By contrast, great writers devote paragraphs and pages into building mood or setting or suspense or mystery or characters -- lavish wordiness that your favorite stories are full of. Many great journalists would be terrible novelists (Father Dismembers Son for Refusing Dark Side. Darth Vader invited son, Luke, to join dark side of force. Luke refused. Vader cut off Luke’s hand…).
Grading: Your writing must be great to earn an A. Good writing is required. Good writing is not A-grade writing. Mediocre writing is sufficient to pass.
24 sentences that can be added to pretty much any paragraph: