Newspapers and the Writing Process
Objectives
Students will:
Become familiar with the steps in the writing process.
Analyze how the writing process is used in the newsroom.
Understand difference and similarities between the writing process in classroom and newsroom.
Newspapers contain three types of writing:
news
feature
editorial
All use the general steps in the writing process:
prewriting (select topic, brainstorm ideas, collect resources)
drafting (write ideas, organize thoughts, use resources in text)
revising (assess content and organization of text, rewrite as necessary for content, logic, and organization)
editing (correct for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage)
proofreading (correct for typographical errors)
News Stories
They are factual and answer the questions who, what, where, when, why, and how in the order of importance for that story, usually in the first paragraph.
Follow inverted pyramid news writing style.
Readers can get essential information from the first few paragraphs.
Newspapers can easily cut a story from the bottom up to fit into the paper.
It is easy for editors or others to write headlines summarizing the story after reading just the first couple of paragraphs.
Elements of a news story:
Lead - hooks the reader's interest
uses strong verbs and a question, quotation, or description
Body - offers more facts and details
fully answers the questions of the five W's and H
End - answer any further questions
leave the reader thinking about what has been written
Lesson Activity
What Makes a News Story?