What skills are needed to write news to professional standards?
A passion for media-style language and reasonable knowledge of events in the news around the world.
A wide vocabulary and the ability to write simple and clear sentences using the right words and grammar.
The Basics a writer should keep in mind
Writing for the reader: Before you start writing a story, see yourself in the reader's place. Do not assume the reader knows as much as you do - which means - make your story easy for everyone to understand.
One topic per story: Stick to a topic, write details directly connected to it and avoid unnecessary information. Source: A story should have a source. Every piece of information in the story should be attributed to a source. ( Sources can be: Police, officials, eye-witnesses, media reports so on ..)
Balance your story: A professionally written story should have the views or versions of all sides involved in the story (This may not be possible in every case)
Structure of a story: A story contains a lead, a body and a footnote - The lead tells what the story is about
- The body contains details
- The footnote has a brief background to the story
Writing rules Keep your lines simple and short
Use the right words
Understand and be sure of what you write, do not write what has been assumed
Technical information should be simplified
Give the locations relevant to the story
Use description for people, places and organisations that are not well known
Which news sources are best to learn from
Newzroom recommends BBC and Al Jazeera, also follow reputed international news outlets to get the best reading and learning experience.
Newzroom's website runs selected stories by reputed international news organisations
to help our learners.
Knowledge
To be a good news writer, be updated and well informed about events happening around the world. Newswriters are heavily dependent on Google for information, but it is a good idea to maintain your own email archive of big stories for reference.
Check out our stylesheet for beginners
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