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WRITING ARTICLES FOR NEWSPAPERS:The Heading, The Lead

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Journalistic Writing ­ MCM310
VU
LECTURE 39
WRITING ARTICLES FOR NEWSPAPERS
Articles (or op-ed writing), as a matter of fact, are analytical essays in which a writer attempts to analyze an
issue and offers his view point to his readers. Of course, his aim can be to inform, educate, and even to
influence his readers' behavior. To compose an analysis, the writer collects the information that is central to the
issue he is examining -- the claims, the evidence, and the assumptions -- and interprets the strengths and
weaknesses of all sides in the debate. The writer often asks a series of questions to determine the relative merits
of each side of the debate, questions that assess the quality and quantity of several different types of evidence
any author could use.
1. How to Write an Article.
Definition: An article is a piece of writing that investigates an interesting topic. It has to be written in a clear,
expository style, and has to be interesting to a wide range of readers.
General guidelines:
think about a topic;
if needed, do some researches; try to look for interesting, but not commonly know facts that can be
informative;
write down your thoughts
Tips on article writing:
Don't prepare yourself for an exhausting and hard-to-accomplish job. An article is shorter than a
research paper, and can be a lot of fun if you relax and just give it your best.
Be simple.
Try to reach for people's interests. Think about things that are common to your surrounding.
2. How to Write an Article. The Heading
Definition:
The heading is a summary of your article.
General guidelines:
try to summarize an article in three-four words;
If you are not sure what your writing is going to be about, write a workable heading that you can
change or alter afterwards.
Tips on article writing:
Headings for news articles should be informative.
Headings for amusing articles can and should be intriguing.
Headings don't have to be long. They also shouldn't contain unfamiliar words, or terminology.
3. How to Write an Article. The Lead
Definition:
Leads identify narrow topics.
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Journalistic Writing ­ MCM310
VU
General guidelines:
a lead summarizes the topic while saying to the reader that some conflict exists;
it gives the reader motivations to read an article;
try to stay with three sentences in your lead;
For short articles, a lead can be one sentence long.
Tips on article writing:
For informative heading leads can be either informative, or motivating. For motivating headings leads
have to be informative, for at least one part of this dual structure has to tell the readers what is going
on.
4. How to Write an Article. The Conclusion at the Top
Definition: A conclusion at the top is especially essential for informative articles. It gives the reader all the
necessary information about a problem that the writing is about.
General guidelines:
tell the reader that facts, reasoning and investigation have yielded a result that affects them;
Tips on article writing:
Eliminate unimportant information, long sentences, unfamiliar words, and everything that can turn
a short summary into a long storytelling.
5. How to Write an Article. Body Paragraphs and Headings
Definition: These requisites will explain your findings and allow you to make a case.
General guidelines:
body paragraphs are called expository because they explain facts and events, or certain points to
the readers;
expository paragraphs begin with topic sentences that signal the beginning of a new thought;
next sentences support the topic sentence with reasonable data;
expository paragraphs in articles usually have from four to five sentences;
add additional sentences if you need to support your paragraph's topic further;
start with the most interesting information;
an article allows you to explain something that no one has solved before;
Write an ending using less formal language and a clever statement.
Tips on article writing:
The reason why you should start with the most interesting information first is not only in catching
the readers. If there is not enough space on the page, an editor can allow cutting the last
paragraphs of your writing in order to fit an article into small space available. And you don't want
to lose your best information, do you?
Don't try to write one more conclusion. You've already placed it at the top, so no restatements,
please.
Source: http://custom-writing.org/blog/writing-tips/52.html
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION TO JOURNALISTIC WRITING:Practical, THINGS TO KNOW
  2. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITERS
  3. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITERS
  4. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING:Achieve appropriate readability:
  5. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING:Be concise, Be creative, Be correct
  6. THE PROCESS OF WRITING:INVENTION, WHEN YOU START TO WRITE
  7. THE PROCESS OF WRITING II:ORGANIZING, DRAFTING, REVISING
  8. ALL ABOUT WORDS:HOW WORDS ARE FORMED?:SUFFIXES
  9. DICTIONARY-A WRITER’S LANGUAGE TOOL:KINDS OF INFORMATION
  10. PARTS OF SPEECH:Noun Gender, Noun Plurals, Countable Nouns
  11. BASIC CLAUSE PATTERNS
  12. ACTIVE AND PASSSIVE VOICE
  13. MODIFIERS AND SENTENCE TYPES:COMPOUND SENTENCES
  14. REPORTED SPEECH:Indirect Questions, Direct commands
  15. GRAMMATICAL SENTENCE – ISSUES:SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
  16. GRAMMATICAL SENTENCE – ISSUES II:SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
  17. EFFECTIVE SENTENCE:PARALLELISM, NEEDED WORDS, SHIFTS
  18. STYLE: GUIDELINE AND PITFALLS I:COLLOQUIAL VS FORMAL, CIRCUMLOCUTION
  19. STYLE: GUIDELINE AND PITFALLS II:AMBIGUITY, REDUNDANCY, EUPHEMISM:
  20. PARAGRAPH WRITING: TYPES AND TECHNIQUES:STRUCTURE
  21. PARAGRAPH WRITING: TYPES AND TECHNIQUES:Putting on Our Play
  22. ESSAY WRITING:VARIOUS STRATEGIES FOR ESSAYS, PROMPTS
  23. SIGNAL WORDS:Non word Emphasis Signals
  24. EXPOSITORY WRITING:LOGICAL FALLACIES, APPEAL TO EMOTION
  25. THE WRITING STYLES: REPORT and NARRATIVE WRITING, SHORT REPORTS
  26. THE WRITING STYLES: DESCRIPTIVE AND PERSUASIVE WRITINGS, Observation
  27. RESEARCH WRITING AND DOCUMNETING SOURCES:Handling Long Quotations
  28. Summary and Précis Writing:CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD SUMMARY
  29. Punctuation:THE PERIOD, THE COMMA, THE SEMICOLON, THE COLON
  30. MECHANICS:ABBREVIATIONS, NUMBERS, SPELLING, THE HYPHEN
  31. READING SKILLS FOR WRITERS:EDUCATED READING, STEPS
  32. PARTS OF A NEWSPAPER:Box-out, By-line, Caption, Exclusive, Feature
  33. THE LANGUAGE OF THE NEWSPAPERS II:BROADSHEET NEWSPAPER
  34. News Writing and Style I:WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A NEWSPAPER
  35. NEWS WRITING II:Accuracy, Clarity, Style, Qualities of Effective Leads
  36. EDITORIAL WRITING:WRITING AN EDITORIAL:STRUCTURING AN EDITORIAL
  37. WRITING FEATURES:GENERATING FEATURE STORY IDEAS
  38. WRITING COLUMNS:Column and a news report, Purpose, Audience
  39. WRITING ARTICLES FOR NEWSPAPERS:The Heading, The Lead
  40. WRITING ANALYSIS:purpose, scope, method, results, recommendations
  41. LETTERS TO EDITORS:Four important aspects about letters, Organizing letters
  42. BROADCAST AND WEB NEWS WRITING:WRITE CONCISELY, BROADCAST STYLE
  43. WRITING PRESS RELEASE, REVIEWS AND OBITUARIES:Summary of Content:
  44. THE ART OF INTERVIEWINGS
  45. FINAL THOUGHTS:Practical, Job-Related, Social, Stimulating, Therapeutic