Journalistic Writing
short, sweet (sometimes), and to the point (always) Multimedia Main Page
Journalistic writing, or writing for a news outlet, is very different from writing essays, research papers, short stories, and many other creative writing pieces. While it is important to elaborate and be descriptive in those pieces, that is not the case with journalism.
When writing for a newspaper…
You DO want to:
- get the reader’s attention efficiently
- How to do this: You grab the reader’s attention in the lead, or first paragraph, of your story. The lead can be creative and catchy, but it should be quick – three sentences at the most.
- For news-type stories, the main purpose of a lead is to relay all the important information. Focus on getting in the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the story into two sentences.
- convey all relevant and important information in as few words as possible
- How to do this: Take out unnecessary descriptions and details. Journalism is focused more on the facts than the pretty picture.
- Ex. The highly-respected captain of the football team stood up in front of the audience and enthusiastically asked for them to join in a loud and joyous rendition of the school’s glorious cheer.
could be rewritten more concisely as
The captain of the football team faced the audience and asked everyone to join him in the school’s cheer.
You DO NOT want to:
- editorialize (add in descriptive words that are your opinion, and not fact)
- Exception – It is fine to editorialize in opinions pieces.
- Ex. There is an amazing new club at CHS that everyone will really enjoy.
- could be rewritten more objectively as
- A new club has started at CHS, which many may enjoy.
- get side-tracked
- Stick to the point. People read the news to find out about an event. They’re not looking for random tangents. Be clear and concise.
- give too much detail or description
- (reference example under “convey all relevant and important information in as few words as possible”)
Why should you be concise?
- readers have a short attention span
- as a journalist, your job is to relay information clearly
- your point will come across more clearly if it is not bogged down by extra words
- in the real world, journalists have limits on article length
- concise articles keep the paper to a reasonable size because no one wants a 50 page paper