Text 1. Story Structure

You have several options when it comes to the structure of your story. You can choose a chronological order, where you present the key events in your story as they occurred. It is more likely, though, that you will use one of the three traditional news forms: a) the inverted pyramid, b) the narrative or c) the hourglass.

The most popular structure for news stories is the inverted pyramid. In the inverted pyramid, the information is arranged in descending order of importance. The most important material is placed at the beginning of the story, and less important material follows. Succeeding paragraphs explain and support the lead.

The inverted pyramid is popular because it still serves readers well. It tells them quickly what they want to know. It also serves the reporter by forcing him / her to sharpen his / her news judgment, to identify and rank the most important elements of the story. But the inverted pyramid has big disadvantages. Although it delivers the most important news first, it does not encourage good writing. Many times stories do not have an ending crafted by the writer; they simply end. There is no suspense. Reporters tend to lose interest, time and energy. Writing in the second half of the story is casual at best, and poor at worst.

People are prominent in the story, and they are responsible for the action. The story has a beginning, middle and end. Quotations sound like real speech. The words and actions of the characters reveal motives.

A third story structure, the hourglass, combines some of the best elements of both the inverted pyramid and the narrative. It consists of three parts: a top, which tells the news quickly; the turn, a nimble transition; and the narrative, a chronological retelling of events. The hourglass works well with police stories, courtroom dramas and other incidents that lend themselves to chronological narration. The hourglass has several advantages: readers get the news high in the story; the writer gets to use storytelling techniques; and it encourages a real ending.

As you already know, a well organized newspaper article helps readers understand the story better and find in the text the necessary information a reader looks for. From the following text you will know about several ways of structuring your news article. Study them thoroughly and compare with the Belarusian tradition of organizing a news item. Do you see differences or common features?

Text 2. The Structure of a News Story [2]

When you organize your news stories, first find the news peg (the reason for doing the story, the new information), and place that in the lead. Then in the body, tell the reader the rest of the story, providing details as needed to make it complete and balanced, in decreasing order of importance. Of course, any good news story will be sprinkled liberally with quotations throughout.

Although no story can fit into a formula, the following structure is fairly typical of news stories:

Opening	Lead: the first paragraph that tells the most important of the 5W’s and H. Second paragraph: tells the rest of the 5W’s if they were not included in the lead.
Catchall paragraph(s)	Elaborates on the lead. Expands on information introduced in the lead. Answers the who, what, when, where and why in more detail. The why and how may be left to later.
Background information	Provided if it is a follow-up story that gives new details of an ongoing story. Gives earlier details, or background, on what has occurred and has been reported on before. Sometimes simply provides explanatory material necessary to understand the story.
Sales message	If appropriate to the story, a quotation or a statement about what an event or situation means to the reader. Gives the significance of the event or situation. Answers the question of why readers should pay attention.
Transition to details	Transitional statement or words that lead the reader into the details of the story. Example: “ Police said the accident occurred …” Example: “ The council broke into open detail when Mayor Smith announced …”
Details needed to complete a story	Organized into blocks (or paragraphs) of unified details. Each paragraph provides one aspect of the enfolding story in decreasing order of importance. May need to go to a chronological retelling of some stories in order to make it readable, such as kidnapping.

You can get acquainted with one more way of organizing information in a news story. It is a beginner's guide [3] to writing news stories where writers will learn the basic and somewhat flexible format of news article writing.

Structure of a News Article:

The Headline

The headline of a news article can be written in two different ways. The traditional way is to write the headline in a purely factual manner. This way of writing a headline conveys what the article is actually about.

The second option is to write a clever, sometimes cute headline. This works for newspapers like the Boston Herald, which runs the gamut between being newsy and being tabloid-ish. A clever headline may catch more eyes.

The headline does not have to be written first, it can be written last.

The Lead

The lead is the most important part of the news story. The lead should not tease the reader. The lead needs to relay the facts of the story right up front.

State the who and the what in the lead, or the first sentence of the news article. If the when, where and how are important, include those as well. After reading the lead, the reader should know exactly what the article will cover. There should be no surprises.

If the facts themselves are completely uninteresting, or not compelling enough, you may not have a real news story on your hands.

3. Second Paragraph: Why

The second paragraph of the article expounds upon the lead. The writer includes the significance of the event, or the "why" this event is newsworthy. Why should the reader read this? Why should they care?

4. Third Paragraph: Who

Depending on the news story, the second and third paragraphs could switch places. If the event is about a famous person, the significance may be because of who they are, which would bump this paragraph up.

If the who is not as important as the why, this paragraph could also find its way further down in the article.

Include a more in-depth paragraph about the person in question. Why is this person important? Consider this one of the background paragraphs. For example, "Director John Smith is currently working on a science fiction thriller. Smith is best known for films The Moon Glow and The Earthquake that Ended the World. "

5. Fourth Paragraph and Beyond: In-Depth

After establishing what happened, who did it, why it's important, and why the person or people are important, go into further detail about the event.

6. Fifth Paragraph and Beyond: Background

Include any deeper background information paragraphs further down in the article. These paragraphs could include a quick biographical sketch of the newsworthy event, historical information, or other background information relevant to the news event.

Published by Pam Gaulin,

Featured Contributor in Ats and Entertainment and Lifestyle

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16