Journalistic Writing
Style
For news articles
Narrative
Writing vs.
Journalistic
Writing
Narrative:
Has a beginning, middle, and end
Engages the reader’s mind and heart
shows actors moving across its stage,
revealing their characters through their
actions and their speech
contains a mystery or a question—
something that compels the reader to
keep reading and find out what
happens
News
Article:
Inverted pyramid structure
Entirely true and factual in every detail
Must be concrete, understandable and
straight forward
Avoids imagination and opinion
Words must be concise
Lead
Inverted
Pyramid
Structure:
Nut graph
Fluff
 The lead is the first paragraph
 should be short; one to two sentences only
The Lead:
 It must grab the readers’ interest
 It gives the who, what, when, where and why
 Nut graph is short form for paragraph in a
nutshell
The Nut
Graph:
 The second paragraph in a news article
explains the story in a nutshell
 Think of how you would tell the story if you
only had one minute in which to tell it
 The fluff is less important information that
fills out the news article
 Background information
The Fluff:
 Quotations
 Explanations
Things to
avoid in
journalistic
writing:
Opinion
Speculation
Poetic
description
Wordiness
Eliminating
Opinion:
Opinion:
Better:
We think
everyone should
take their
families to The
Ex. to experience
the best Toronto
has to offer.
Families can go to
The Ex. To
experience the
best Toronto has
to offer.
````
Poetic
Description:
Eliminating
Poetic
Description:
A beautiful,
sunny afternoon
in the heart of
Canada’s most
metropolitan city
was brutally
interrupted by a
vicious, fatal
stabbing today.
Better:
````
A 43 year old
male was fatally
stabbed at the
corner of Jane
and Finch today.
Eliminating
Wordiness:
Wordy:
Better:
Despite the fact
that she was
feeling ill, she
came to the
conclusion that
she would go to
work
Despite feeling ill,
she decided to go
to work.
````
Let’s practice
eliminating
wordiness
Eliminating
Wordiness:
Wordy:
Better:
Because of the fact
that he got a good
grade on the
midterm, he
decided to take the
night off.
He did well on the
midterm, so he
took the night off.
````
Wordy:
Eliminate the
Wordiness:
The children were
tired and
exhausted after
the long climb to
the high top of
the mountain.
Better:
?
````
Wordy:
Eliminate the
Wordiness:
The dog was
walked by the
two girls who
were sisters.
Better:
?
````
Now you are
ready to try…
How Energy Drinks Affect Your Body
Within 24 Hours
Honor Whiteman
August 15, 2015
Finished
Product:
Last year the World Health organization hailed
energy drinks “a danger to public health”, after they
found consumption of such beverages is on the rise.
Now, an infographic created by Personalise.co.uk
claims to show exactly what happens to the body in
the 24 hours after consuming an energy drink.
Created using information from sources including
the UK’s National Health Services (NHS) and the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and energy
drink manufacturer Red Bull, the infographic follows
another that went viral earlier this month…
• http://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/news-feature-vnarrative-whats-the• difference/http://thoughtcatalog.com/angelolorenzo/2014/08/truth-and-creativity-journalism-vscreative-writing/
Sources:
• http://journalism7thhour.blogspot.ca/2014/10/invertedpyramid-there-are-many-ways-of.html
• https://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq
=fixing+wordiness+practice&ie=UTF8&rlz=1T4PLXB_enCA663CA663&q=fixing+wordiness+prac
tice&gs_l=hp....0.0.9.1134393...........0.qM-hJUMP-Qw
• http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/302298.php
Journalistic Writing
Style
For news articles