How to
Write news; have you ever think about it?
Well,
actually writing news is not so different from writing any article, yet, the
language may somewhat distinct. some characteristics of news language are like
the followings
K I S S
This stands for Keep It Short and
Simple. It is used in a book called The Newspapers Handbook, a
useful guide for students of journalism, which points out that short sentences
are better for news. Broadsheet newspapers
usually have sentences of 30 - 35 words; tabloids and local papers normally
carry shorter sentences of 16 - 20 words. Stay as close to popular speech as you can,
and keep to familiar and simple.
Reading for Speed
Everything
about a newspaper is set up to enable you to read it fast.
Sentences
and headlines are short, crossheads between paragraphs break the story down
into bite-size
pieces, columns are narrow and easy to read.
Words should be short too.
Never
Use Three Words When One Will Do
Here
are some phrases which you would rarely see in a newspaper
In
the near future
In
the first instance
On
the subject of
In
the small hours
In
consequence of newspaper
Don’t Repeat Yourself
Keep things
short by making sure of the following:
Don’t
use two words which mean the same - eg. uniquely special, important essentials,
final outcome.
Try
not to repeat a word in the same sentence.
Avoid
words like very, quite, rather - they’re unnecessary and don’t add anything to the
meaning.
Use Active Verbs
‘Burglars
took the corgi’ works better than ‘The corgi was taken by the burglars’ - and
it’s shorter.
Things to Avoid
Clichés
Opposition
Euphemisms
Word
making
Being
too chatty
Unnecessary use of foreign phrases
Well, Ready to write your own news? give it a shot
No comments:
Post a Comment