FUNDAMENTALS OF NEWS WRITING:Inverted Pyramided Style, Telling the Story

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Radio News, Reporting and Production MCM515

LESSON 27

FUNDAMENTALS OF NEWS WRITING

The first thing which a news writer must keep in his mind while writing a news story is that the news must

be factual, objective and the language employed must not be flowery.

Inverted Pyramided Style

The main difference between news writing and other forms of prose, such as essay, short story, novel,

article, or feature, etc. is that the writers of these forms usually begin with minor details first and they first

start with comparatively insignificant details, and then develop the flow of the writing to the most

significant information by the end of the writing; whereas the news writer reverses this style. In other words

a news writer starts writing with the most significant information and the rest of the details are given near

the end of the story.

This style of news writing is called inverted pyramid style that is peculiar with news writing. The inverted

pyramid can be illustrated as following:

Most important details of a News Item

Intro (Lead-headline)

Body of the News

Least important details of a News Item

Essentials of Radio News

Lead

The lead or the headline or intro is the starting sentence of a news item. It contains the most important

features and the facts and figures of the news story. Since it is the crux or the gist of the event that is being

covered, it needs to be short, crisp, comprehensive and catchy. Keeping the interest of the listener alive

throughout the bulletin and making him wait for the detailed news, all depends upon the lead. Radio news

presentation is different from that of the newspaper in a way that in newspaper every headline is followed

by the detailed news but as far as radio is concerned, this technique is simply impossible. Here the headlines

of all the news items to be included in the bulletin are read out at the start of the bulletin and then the news

in detail goes on air. That is why writing lead for radio news bulletin requires more skill and proficiency on

the part of the news writer.

A headline is normally a brief summery of the main points of the story and must be completed within a line

comprising word not more than 48 in any way.

Body

This is the detailed version of the news item whose headline has already been read out by the start of the

news bulletin. This part of the news bulletin may contain an actuality, voicer or wrap depending upon

the requirement of the news item.

Radio News, Reporting and Production MCM515

In five-minute news bulletin, however, actuality, or other insertions are not possible to be made a part of

the bulletin owing to the time restraints.

Details

While penning down the body of the news story a news writer must not forget to include any important

point of the news item. All the details must be arranged in the body.

Paragraphs

If the news item is pretty lengthy yet important, the story must be written in paragraphs. In this way the

newscaster will be at ease while reading out the news item.

Chronological order of the events

Another important thing that the news writer needs to focus is the Chronological order of the events. If

the event being covered extends to dates or different times in the same day, the chronological order is to be

maintained. It means that the different parts and portions of the same news item must be arranged

according to the order they have taken place.

Paul White (CBS News Director) Formula

The format and the style of radio news bulletin is well explained by Paul Whit who had been serving CBS

news as director. The style described by Mr. White is called Paul Whit Formula that goes like this:

"Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them that you have told them."

The formula actually explains that in a radio news bulletin, first the audience must be told the head lines

(Tell them what you are going to tell them), then news in detail must be read out (tell them), and finally

the headlines once again are to be told by before the bulletin ends (and then tell them that you have told

them).

Essentials of Radio News Writing

The essentials of writing news for radio, by and large, are the same as are the essentials of writing for radio

in general. The news writer must keep the following truths in his/her mind while writing news for radio:

For ear---not for eye

First and the foremost truth about writing for radio is that you are writing for ears not for eyes. It simply

means that whatever you are going to write it will be heard and it will not be read by the audience. It is quite

obvious that the written expression is different from the spoken one and it ought to be. The content written

for radio must be spoken and lengthy sentences and difficult vocabulary must be avoided.

Telling the Story

You must write for the radio in a way that can be told not read out. Telling a story is an effective method

for writing for radio.

If you find it difficult to put your thoughts down on paper clearly and simply, use the trick of

telling someone out loud what you want to say -----------------------------------------Harris Watts, BBC.

Writing for mass audience

While writing for radio another important truth must be kept in mind that you are writing for masses, not

for the intelligentsia of your society. Communication means to convey the message in a way that the target

audience not only listen to it but also understand it. For securing this purpose it is necessary that the

message must be constructed coming to the level of the audience.

Listener's requirement is different from that of a reader.

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