Writing for newspapers

UNIT 6

NEWS WRITING

Writing well means never having to say,

‘I guess you had to be there.’
Jef Mallett

Being a journalist means to be able to work in different Mass Media: radio, television, on-line journalism and, of course, print media – newspapers and magazines.

This unit is devoted to newspapers, to be more exact, to writing news articles for newspapers in English.

Different journalistic cultures have different traditions. So, it concerns the British, as well as the American journalistic tradition. After studying this unit

you will know about

· the peculiarities of the content of news stories (representation of some discourse categories in news items)

· the structure of news stories;

· the language of news stories;

· the interview as a method of gathering information for news stories (types of an interview, its structure and tools, ethics of conducting an interview);

· some careers in the sphere of print media;

· ethics of print media;

you will be able

· to analyze the representation of discourse categories in news stories;

· to write separate components of a news item;

· to write complete news stories.

6.1 Representation of some Discourse Categories in the Content of a News Story.

STARTER

· When you plan to write a newspaper article what do you start with?

· What things are very important to take into consideration while working on the story?

· Have you ever heard anything about “discourse” and “discourse categories”? If “yes” what knowledge do you possess about these things?

To write a good article and thus to realize effective communication first of all it is necessary to analyze the situation in which communication takes place (its extralinguistic features) and then code the information taking into consideration the discourse categories [1] which correspond to a particular newspaper genre. As we deal with a news story, we need to describe its key discourse categories.

Self-identification is a discourse category which meansself-representation (how the author of a particular text is represented in this very text) through sign nomination and its interpretation (by means of semantics, grammar, stylistics, etc.).

Time means displaying oneself in time (past, present, future; real / unreal). This category is represented in a news article in a different way. As the author does not openly express his / her point of view on a certain problem / issue being covered, so it is shown through the described event and its representation in a time context.

Space means displaying oneself in space: geopolitical (local or global level) or modal (reality, virtuality level). In a news story it is represented by displaying an event in a certain space.

Audience means reflection of the characteristics of the audience: through identification of the audience and forms of address.

Intertextuality means widening the latent content by means of citations, proverbs, illustrations, etc.

Intereventness means widening the latent content by means of referring to other (non-topical) events.

Discourse practice means extensional characteristic of discourse, realised with the help of the key topic, which is both the goal and the result (for example, discourse of consolidation, confrontation or lobbying discourse).

Stylistic range means variety of stylistic registers (formal, informal, slang…).

Representation of these categories in a newspaper text helps convey the information more fully and deeply and thus establish a contact with the target audience and later get a feedback from the readers.

Have a look at the following article taken from the Observer which shows you the above mentioned discourse categories represented in the text of the story.

LONDON 2012: GREG RUTHERFORD OVERCOMES INJURY TO CLINCH GOLD

The British long jumper's triumph at the Olympic Stadium comes after he considered quitting due to a spate of setbacks

Cass Jones

The Observer, Sunday 5 August 2012

Greg Rutherford celebrates after winning the men's long jump for Team GB at the Olympic Stadium while Mo Farah runs past in the 10,000 meters final. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

With a career blighted by injury that saw him finish a disappointing 10th at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, long jumper Greg Rutherford hadalmost considered quitting the sport. But his failures were a distant memory when he leapt to glory to win a gold medal in front of a home crowd – becoming the first British man to take the title in nearly 50 years. The Milton Keynes-born athlete added toTeam GB's gold medal tally with a 8.31m jump on what was a glorious night in British sporting history. The joint British record holder has had a rollercoaster journey to glory after suffering major setbacks through injury. Last year, he said the fitness problems that hindered his career had left him feeling at an all-time low and he considered giving up. But all this was behind him as he triumphed at the Olympic Stadium, finishing ahead of Australia's Mitchell Watt, who recorded 8.16m to take silver. Rutherford, 25, had shown natural sporting talent from an early age. As a teenager, he spent six months on trial at Aston Villa football club, following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Jock Rutherford, who played for Newcastle United and Arsenal and won League Championship and FA Cup medals. But it was in the long jump that he showed the most promise and, in 2005, he won the AAA Championships before going on to win gold at the European Junior Championships with a 8.14m jump. In 2006, he won silver at the European Championships in Gothenburg, but was forced to miss almost all of the 2007 season through injury. He only managed to finish 10th in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but went on to break the British record with a jump of 8.30m at the World Championships a year later, beating rival Chris Tomlinson's mark by one centimeter. But injury came back to haunt him in 2010 when he was ruled out of the European Championships with a foot problem. He went on to miss a place in the final of the World Championships a year later after suffering a hamstring injury during the qualifying round. After adapting his jumping style to imitate four-times Olympics long jump champion Carl Lewis, Rutherford equalled the British record with a world-leading 8.35m jump in May 2012, equalling the mark set by Tomlinson the previous year. It meant he was a strong contender for a medal in the London 2012 games. The rest is now Olympic history. It was the first time Great Britainhad taken the title in the men's long jump since Lynn Davies in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

intereventness, time and space   intereventness, intertextuality     intereventness     intereventness, time and space   intereventness, time and space     time and space intereventness, time and space   intereventness   time   intereventness, time and space

In this particular sports news story the discourse category intereventness is prevailing. The author refers to different events preceded the main one (when he describes the sportsman’s career).

As the story is written in the newspaper the Observer it is clear that the target audience is the British people who are interested in sports events. The journalist mentions a lot of championships, competitions, etc.

The author (self-identification) is competent in the sports sphere. We can judge about it by his knowledge of different sporting events he writes about in the news article. The journalist observes the rules of the genre and presents the information in the 3d person singular without any commentary or analysis.

The story is about the Olympic games 2012, so it describes the present time, though the author has to refer to different historical events from sport (time). In the center of the article is Britain, but when writing about other games and sports events we find in the story mentioning of such countries as China, Japan and others (space).

In the article we practically do not find any reference to other texts (intertextuality), though this news item would be more interesting if the author had mentioned any of them.

The language of the article is very neutral (stylistic range), the journalist gives only facts; we can find some epithets such as disappointing and glorious. The author chooses mainly active constructions.

The main topic is being developed throughout the story (discourse practice).

TASK 1

Now you can practice your skills in analyzing news stories from the point of view of representation of the discourse categories in their content. You are offered to split into small groups (or if you wish you may work in pairs) and find any news story in American or British newspapers (or their e-versions in the Internet). Read these stories and identify how the above described discourse categories are reflected in these particular articles. Present your analysis to your groupmates.

6.2 The Language in News Stories

You will agree that all extralinguistic peculiarities are realized in a news story with the help of certain linguistic devices. Though we identify a newspaper style as a separate one, its different genres have some distinguished features. Now it is high time you learnt some things about the linguistic peculiarities of a news story.

& READING AND DISCUSSING 1

You are going to read some useful information about the language of a news item. After reading try to formulate short rules about the linguistic features of this genre.

Text 1

WRITING FOR NEWSPAPERS

As a reporter, you should use simple and straightforward language. You also need to get the balance right between being formal enough to sound authoritative but also using the language that is lacking in stuffiness.

As a general rule you should not be using colloquial language or slang apart from in quotes. However, some newspapers do use terms like “cops” and “town hall chiefs” and you need to find out your newspaper’s policy on these.

Even if you do not use slang, you need to make sure you are only using words that people use in everyday conversation. For example, never write “in addition to” because a person in the street would be unlikely to say this. Use “as well as” instead.

You also need to make sure you are concise. This means you should go through every story after you have written it to make sure there are no words that do not need to be there. As the maxim goes, if in doubt, take it out.

Sentences

Your sentences should be short and to the point but there should also be some variety to their length as this will make your story more enjoyable to read. But while there is nothing wrong with having a few longer sentences, never include a sentence that is so long that the reader is likely to have difficulty following it.

When you check your story, make sure every sentence is easy to understand and can only be read to mean one thing. “The most common mistake journalists make is to think that because they understand what they are writing, everyone else will too,” according to Chris Walker, regional managing editor for Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales.

Your writing should also be active rather than passive, as this makes articles more readable. This means that you should structure your sentence so that people are doing things rather than having things done to them.

Paragraphs

Try to keep your paragraphs short. Generally, each one should only be a sentence or two in length and each paragraph should only be making one point.

This will help make your story easier for the reader to digest and having plenty of paragraphs will also make the text look less dense on the page.

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