You can’t know what’ll happen to you in the future, so we don’t recommend you state that writing skills are unnecessary. It may seem that all people who graduated from school or college know how to write good texts, but the reality is a bit different. Writing is far from being the most loved activity. Of course, if you have a natural aptitude for writing, you can craft an outstanding research paper, essay, and even a newspaper article without significant preparation. But if you’re reading this post, you don’t have it and need some assistance.
A newspaper article differs from other types of writing because this text is created for a wide audience, so it should be interesting for people. If you’re good at writing blog posts or academic papers, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll easily write a news article that people like. No matter whether you’re a journalist or just want to try your hand at newspaper article writing, you’ll find a lot of useful information here. There are many articles and guides on the Internet, but they don’t contain the information we gathered to help you.
A Step-By-Step Guide On Crafting an Outstanding News Article
Do you know what differentiates a news article from any other type? It usually discusses the new events and answers the questions of what, when, who, etc. Newspaper articles are usually written in an informational style. If you want to write a long and more detailed post, you’d better pay attention to feature articles — they are more creative and entertaining. But today, we’ll focus on news posts.
We’ll describe each step in detail, and don’t be surprised if you notice that some of them are similar to steps you take when writing college papers or blog posts:
- Identify the theme. Since you plan to write a news article, you should be well informed of what’s going on in the world. If you have a mentor or someone who gives this task to you, you may be given the topic. In case you need to do it independently, take your time. Check forums and social media to find out what current issues and events are interesting for people. If you want to create a good article, you must be sure it answers 5 Ws: what is discussed, who is involved, why the event happened, where it takes place, when, and how.
- Gather the information. No matter how well-versed you are in current events, the facts and data you know will never be enough to write a good newspaper article. A research stage should never be omitted. Read some books and articles to obtain some background knowledge on this topic, and then proceed with finding the recent publications on the chosen topic. Remember about the 5 Ws we mentioned below while gathering the facts. Perhaps, you’ll even need to interview some people, so we recommend you devote enough time to completing this stage. Then compile all the facts and information you have and devote which ones are vital, and which can be omitted.
- Outline your newspaper article. This text should be well-structured, and even professionals can’t structure it without the outline. A good plan should contain six sections: main sentence, intro, opening quotation, main body, closing quotation, and conclusion. Pay attention to the introduction and conclusion because they help you make a good impression on readers.
- Don’t forget about the important parts of your article. If you have read a newspaper article at least once, you know that text isn’t everything it contains. The author should create a catchy headline, write a byline (author’s name), continue with a lead — the first sentence of the article, mention the sources and end with a great ending.
- Check all the facts before writing an article. After you get acquainted with books, publications, and words of people you interviewed, you should always doubt the information you get. Don’t even hope that interviewed individuals will always tell you the truth. That’s why check all the facts before using them in your article. It’s always better to spend more time on preparation than to edit and proofread the final paper several times in a row.
Well, you finished the evaluation and now you can start writing. Use your outline and follow it. If you don’t know what the newspaper article should look like, find a few articles and use them as references. After you finish, you’re one step away from becoming a journalist. The proofreading stage keeps you away from success. If you don’t think you can finish writing alone, you can order some assistance. Custom writing services let people hire professional writers to write a paper from scratch or order help with editing. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you feel that a certain activity harms you.