Basics of

News and Feature Writing gaphor m. panimbang

Writing Effective Headlines• Use active voice and strong present-tense verbs.• The first word in the head should be capitalized as should all proper

nouns.• Use the present tense for the past stories and the infinitive form for

future stories• start a sentence with a number and, even though that number is

below 10, you do not have to spell it out.• Use periods for abbreviations only, and use single quotes where

you would use double quotes in a story. • The semicolon is used normally: separating two thoughts of equal

weight. • Don't use proper names in headlines unless the name is well-

known enough to be recognized immediately. The same is true for abbreviations.

• Avoid the use of the articles a, an and the unless they are needed for clarity.

Headline Vocabulary• Faculty club strengthened (beefed up)

• Enrolment decreases (dips)

• Science Examinations announced (quiz, bared)

• Contests highlight Animal Week (cap)

• President Aquino urges for cooperation (bats for, calls for)

• DepEd Secretary disapproves tuition fee increase (bucks, hike)

• Nationalism a necessity in education (vital cog)

• Principal praises Pepito’s humility (lauds, extols)

• Navarro keynote speaker at YMCA conference ( keynotes YMCA confab)

• Local staff dominates press title (rules, lords over)

• Student writers prepare for journalism contest (scribes hone up for Press tilt)

• ‘My Little Bossing’ to be shown in January ( booked for)

What is a lead?

LeadLeadis an introduction of a news story. This may be a single word, a phrase, a clause, a brief sentence, an entire paragraph or a series of paragraph.

It’s main function is to tell the story in capsule

form and to answer right away the

questions the reader would ask . .

6 Rules for Writing News Leads

Rule 1Rule 1A straight news lead should be a single paragraph consisting of a single sentence, and should summarize, at minimum, the most newsworthy "what," "where" and "when" of the story.

Rule 2Rule 2 The lead's first verb should express the main "what" of the story and should be placed among the lead's first seven words.

Rule 3Rule 3 The lead's first verb should express the main "what" of the story and should be placed among the lead's first seven words.

Rule 4Rule 4 If there's a "who" involved in the story, the lead should give some indication of who the "who" is.

Rule 5Rule 5 The lead should summarize the "why" and "how" of the story, but only if there's room.

Straight News Story

Summary Lead

What are Feature Stories?

• Feature stories are human-interest articles that focus on particular people, places and events.

• Feature stories are journalistic, researched, descriptive, colorful, thoughtful, reflective, thorough writing about original ideas.

• Feature stories cover topics in depth, going further than mere hard news coverage by amplifying and explaining the most interesting and important elements of a situation or occurrence.

• Feature stories are popular content elements of newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites, newsletters, television broadcasts and other mass

media.

Topics for Feature Stories

NARRATIVNARRATIVESES

BACKGROUNDERSBACKGROUNDERS

DEVELOPMENTALDEVELOPMENTALFEATURE ARTICLESFEATURE ARTICLES

PERSONALITIESPERSONALITIES

EXPERIENCEEXPERIENCE

WHAT TO DO &WHAT TO DO &HOW TO DOHOW TO DO

ARTICLESARTICLES

ADVENTURESADVENTURES DESCRIPTIODESCRIPTIONN

Structure

ClimaxClimax

Secondary

Interest

Secondary

Interest

Climax

Secondary

Interest

Details

FICTION AND DRAMA

Details

NEWS STORYIncreasingInterest

DecreasingInterest

Thanks for the Attention!