News Writing 101: From the world to your newsroom

Editor's Note: Soumik Dey from PressPassNYC gives his tips on how to news writing.

In journalism, there is no need for drawn-out introductions, like in English class: just get right into the information. In order to do that, you should approach news writing in an inverted pyramid structure.

The inverted pyramid goes as follows:

• The lede: Open with the who, what, when, where, and why of the subject at hand. This is the information readers MUST walk away with. 

• The body: These are details which are important and contextualize the lead. It helps readers understand what happened.

• The tail: This is where the least crucial details reside. Readers do not necessarily need to know these, but it is good information to have in the back pocket. 

Keeping this structure in mind will help educate your audience in as little time as possible. In a world dominated by short form content (i.e. TikTok), the attention spans of readers have fallen dramatically. According to a Chartbeat study in 2020, the average person spends 34 seconds reading an article.

Following the writing process is the interviewing process. News articles about a local topic should aim to have three interviews. More is always appreciated, but three is the minimum to get as many perspectives as possible. For a news article, avoid interviewing sources who are too alike (ex: two freshmen, two geometry teachers) unless the news story pertains to a smaller part of the community. In smaller schools, you may have to source people who occupy similar niches (ex. two  sophomores on the basketball team).

When it comes to writing a story revolving around a certain person in the school (ex: the principal’s new school policy), prioritize getting that person’s interview. Even a short comment or quote can add information and depth to a piece. In some cases, getting the central person’s interview can add new perspectives and shed a situation or controversy in a different light. Of course, it might be difficult to reach that person or you do not hear back from them (which is perfectly normal in journalism!). In that case, be sure to hear from people who are impacted or closely associated with the topic. 

News should also be as accessible to as many people as possible, so be sure to use simplistic language. When it comes to jargon, or specialized lingo for a specific industry, translating it to a larger audience may seem difficult, but most yield colloquial definitions when searching online. Be on the lookout when transcribing interviews for words or phrases that may seem unfamiliar or out of place, as those are most likely to be identified as jargon.

Last but not least, it’s time to source the article. Be warned: the cardinal sin of news writing is making assumptions. Although it may seem to be common sense, almost every detail must have some kind of source behind it. The most credible sources tend to be unbiased sites, such as the Associated Press (AP). 

To summarize, news writing isn’t rocket science, just as long as you believe in yourself and the inverted pyramid!