News Writing Techniques

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Lawan Yakubu Babura



NEWS WRITING TECHNIQUES


PREAMBLE
The golden rule for writing about anything is to know what it is because nobody can write about what he or she does not know. There fore it is necessary to understand what a news story is and identify its features before attempting to write it. Another equally necessary requirement for good writing is sound command of the language of instruction, in this case English language.
Although one of the papers to be presented in this training programme would deal specifically on the topic, “What is News”, it will not be out of place to quote some scholarly definitions of the word, “News”. For example, Mitchel Charnley defined news as “A timely report of events that holds interest or importance or both for considerable number of people”. Melvin Mencher said, “News is information that helps people solve their problems intelligently “. According to Lord Northcliffe, “News is what some body, some where wants to suppress, all the rest is advertising”. In another context, he also said,” If a dog bites a man, it is no news, but if a man bites a dog it is news”. News can also be regarded as an event of the day distilled into few words processed by mechanisms of communication. In fact, definitions of the word news vary depending on various perspectives. A news story tells exactly what happened at a recent event. It can be about a person, place, thing or event.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
News writing differs from creative writing as it deals with facts, especially for radio which emphasizes on hard, solid facts. Writing for the radio calls for more careful word-choice than either for television or newspaper. This is because whereas newspaper readers can read over a story as many times as they like and television viewers have the advantage of watching both still and moving pictures to aid their understanding, the radio listener can only hear the news story being broadcast once If he or she misses a sentence or even a word in a news story there is no way he or she can hear it again. For this reason, there are some key rules which guide reporters on how to produce good news stories for broadcast on radio.
Everyone knows that the main objective of communication is the exchange of ideas. But such exchange can not take place without proper understanding of the message .If the sender and the receiver of a message do not have a common ground for understanding the idea being communicated, then the communication would definitely breakdown. Now, the watch-words to look out for in news writing for radio broadcast are: simplicity, clarity, accuracy and objectivity.
According to theBritish Broadcasting Corporation[B.B.C.]Style Guide, the key to good writing is simple thoughts simply expressed. The use of long, difficult and unfamiliar words usually defeat the essence of communication. Due to the transient nature of radio broadcast, it is always better for news stories to be as accurate and straight forward as possible.
One of the principles for the practice of good journalism is objectivity. A reporter should not be subjective, biased or take sides when writing a news story. He or she is expected to be fair in dealing with both the news makers and the messages at hand. For the reporter to make his or her news story simple, clear, accurate and balanced, the following instructions must be observed strictly:
1] Understand the message at hand.
2] Write in the subject – verb – object pattern. The closer the verb is to the subject, the easier it becomes for the listener to follow the sentence. This calls for the use active voice instead of passive expressions. For example:
Passive – A meeting will be held by the management of Radio Jigawa
last week
Active - The management of Radio Jigawa will meet next week.

Passive - There were riots in lagos last night in which police
Clashed with stone throwing youths.
Active - Youths throwing stones clashed with police during riots in
Lagos last night.
3] Use short words and short sentences.
4] Limit a sentence to one idea.
5] Use present tense verbs where appropriate.
6] Avoid the use of foreign or unfamiliar words and jargons.
7] Figurative expressions like metaphor, simile and alliteration among
Others should be avoided as news stories are concerned with facts
not fiction.
8] Contractions such as: can’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t and so on should be replaced with cannot, would not, should not and so on.
9] Cliches, otherwise called worn-out phrases only help to compound the problems of radio listeners especially when used in news stories. Expressions like: leaves much to be desired, leave no stone unturned, grind to a halt, combing the area for clues, in the pipe line and many others may sound familiar, but their use in a news story can fault the need for fairness and accuracy.
10] Tautology or unnecessary repetition of words in a sentence or similar sentences in a news story must be avoided.
11] Abbreviation of words are not allowed aside from some familiar titles like Dr. or Mr. Similarly, titles like Alhaji, President, Governor and Chief among others can be used in a news story. But such titles should not be over used. For example, it is wrong to use more than one title on a person at the same time like Alhaji Dr Muhammad Amin.
12]Do not start a news story meant for radio broadcast with asking questions or using quotations as the listener may not understand where the story was heading to.
There are many other rules on how to write good news stories for radio broadcast, but it will be pertinent to pause at this juncture for the purpose of this training.
Now that we have an idea of what the word news entails and the basic tools of the trade, it is still necessary for the reporter to know what the news story he or she wants to write is all about. This means the reporter should understand the central theme or the most important aspect of the news story. That idea will enable the reporter to decide on the best angle to choose for writing the story. In other words, the reporter must have gathered enough information from news sources and analyzed it to determine what should be the main focus of the news story before setting out to write.
As a rule, the introductory paragraph of a news story, popularly known as the lead, is the most important part of the news. It is suppose to capture the interest of the listener and highlights what the news story is all about. It is usually brief and straight to the point . Although there are many types of lead, Summary Lead which summarises the most significant facts of news story is often used in writing for the broadcast. Descriptive lead which describes events or unknown central figures in a news story may also be used in certain instances.

STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY
The most common format for writing news stories is the Inverted Pyramid style. This format arranges the news story in descending order beginning with the most important facts and ending with the least significant information. If the story begins with unimportant facts, listeners would lose interest in it. This format allows for and promotes the use of summary lead. The lead is usually written in a single sentence of not more than thirty words. When a reporter writes a story using the inverted pyramid style ,he or she makes it easier for the News Editor to edit or cut the story from the bottom without changing its angle.
Clearly linked or even knit to the inverted pyramid format and the lead or opening paragraph are the fundamental questions news worthy stories must answer whether partially or completely. The questions popularly known as the 5 Ws & H ask: WHO did WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WHEN? and HOW? Listeners always want to hear answers to such questions whenever a news story is being cast. A complete news story structure can be formed by finding answers to the 5Ws & H questions. Usually more than one of the 5Ws & H are condensed in the opening paragraph, especially the WHO, WHAT and WHEN elements. So it is common to hear the persons, places, things, events and time involved in a story combined in the lead. For example:
“The National Assembly today passed a law banning under-age marriage in the country”.
From the example cited above it can be seen that both the National Assembly {WHO} and the ban on under-age marriage {WHAT} as well as the time element- today {WHEN} are equally significant to the value of the news story. That is why those key elements are compressed in the lead while other details follow in subsequent paragraphs.
However if the WHO is a widely known person, place or thing, it is usually the feature or main focus in the lead as the name alone attracts attention. For example:
“Governor Ibrahim Saminu Turaki has warned public servants in Jigawa state against bribery and corruption”.
In situations where the event is more important than the person involved,the lead should be WHAT-based as in the following example:
“An earth quake yesterday wiped off several villages near Tel-Aviv in Israel”.
Sometimes the WHERE element or the place where something occurs may become more pronounced and dominates other elements in the news story as can be seen in:
“Washington D.C., the capital of the United States of America records more cases of violent crimes than any other city in the world”.
In some instances, the time factor in a story carries more weight than the other factors.For example:
“Two years before the next presidential election, some candidates have already started campaigning for the number one seat in the country”.
Or
“Less than one week after he won the election, Governor King kong of Damuwa state died”.
Similarly, at times the reason why an event occurred can be the most important aspect of a news story. This would make it more proper for the cause of the event to come first in the news story. For example:
“Following the recent increase in the price of fuel, the prices of other commodities in the market have also increased”.
Still in other cases how something happens becomes the central issue in the introductory paragraph. For that reason, it is given prominence in the lead. For instance:
“After hitting a tree, a vehicle loaded with sugar cane overturned yesterday along Lari road killing the driver”.
Or
“An eighteen-year old girl died today when she was knocked down by a commercial motor cycle along Suzie way in Domie city”.
As earlier stated, once the lead is constructed the most important part of the story has been established. But another essential aspect of news writing is attribution. Immediately certain information is broadcast about some thing or somebody, the listener becomes eager to know the source of the story attributing a news story to a source makes it sound genuine and believable. Even in situations where the reporter arrived at a story through exclusive investigation, it should be made known to the listener.
However in some cases the attribution may only be implied. For example, where a story is obtained on condition that the identity of the source would not be disclosed, the reporter uses such phrases as,” from a reliable source”,” according to a an official source” or “A source that prefers to remain anonymous disclosed that…” and so on.
But in such situations the reporter must make sure that the integrity of the source is really reliable and the information gathered is authentic.

After ensuring proper attribution which normally appears either in the first or second paragraph, the next thing is to make sure that the rest of the story is given in descending order of importance. To that end, connecting or tie-in words like: Then, However, Meanwhile, Therefore, But and so on should be used to establish sequential flow of the story.
In writing the body of the story, the reporter should be selective in giving details as only essential facts ought to be written. In building up a news story for radio which is meant to be heard by the listener, reporters must always restrict themselves to the use of indirect quotation. The reporter should paraphrase the speaker’s words I reported speech. Direct quotation
must be avoided because it can confuse or mislead the listener. For example:
“The chairman of Kwazazzabo local government council yesterday advised farmers and nomadic Fulani herdsmen to maintain peaceful relationship among them”.
The above example of reported indirect quotation sounds better to the ear than:
“You should maintain peaceful relationship among you”, the chairman of Kwazazzabo local government council advised farmers and nomadic Fulani herdsmen in the area”.
One disturbing feature of news stories in both radio and television stations in this part of the country is the repeated use of the phrase, “He said “ in a single story. It is very common to hear such expressions as,”The chairman said”, “He also said”,” In his response, the state Governor said”. Well there is nothing wrong with such phrases being used in a news story. In fact, they are essentially employed to paraphrase the speaker’s words. But there are a number of other words or synonyms that can replace the word “said” depending on the context of the speech.
Words like: acknowledge,added,admitted,advised,agreed,announced,answered,argued,asked,assured,began,called,cited,claimed,commented,complained,confessed,concluded,counseled,cried,
debated,decide,denied,described,directed,disclosed,emphasized,,enjoined,estimated,
explained,insisted,objected,recited,reminded,replied,rejected,remarked,ruled,responded,revealedthreatened,warned and so on can be used in various stories as substitute for the frequently abused word,”said”.

Due to the limited time allotted for this training session and this paper in particular, the presentation would have to stop here until some other time. But a word of advice here is that no matter how conversant one may be with the rules guiding news writing, experience remains the best guide. So reporters should cultivate the habit of writing news stories from different angles and ask questions on how to improve their skills. As the saying goes-we all learn by doing.
Thank you for listening and endeavour to put what you learn in to practice, please.


BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1] On-the-job experience.
2] Lecture notes
3] B.B.C.Style Guide
4] www.mervinblock.com
5] Fundamentals of Journalism
By Spencer Crump [London, 1980]