Writing in Journalism

Monica, former Writing Center tutor

Please keep in mind that these are only general guidelines; always defer to your professor's specifications for a given assignment. If you have any questions about the content represented here, please contact the Writing Centers so that we can address them for you.

Introduction

Forget everything you’ve learned in your writing classes. Writing for journalism is different than writing for other academic disciplines in almost every aspect.

Journalism stories seek to tell the facts of a story objectively and concisely. Often, because the length of a story is measured in inches, characters, word limits or graphs (jargon for paragraphs) rather than pages, journalists must keep their stories short, direct and free of irrelevant information. Stories that exceed their allotted length are edited and cut down until they fit within their designated space. A crucial difference between journalism stories and other types of academic writing is that professors in other disciplines most often ask students to expand on their ideas and concepts. In journalism, the opposite is true. Journalism professors strive to teach students to write as concisely as possible, describe the facts of an event briefly, cut unnecessary words and eliminate irrelevant details.

Quotes are also an essential part of journalistic writing. When using a quote in a story, students should not use a quote to repeat or emphasize facts and details that have already been stated. Rather, quotes are used to advance the story, help the story transition, and add authority and credibility to the context.

The main purpose of journalistic writing is to tell the story and the facts of current events. As arguments and supporting evidence are generally based on opinion, they are omitted from the objective writing that journalism stories require.

Similar to focusing the context of a paper around the thesis, journalism stories focus the context around the Lede. As the opening sentence in a story, a good lede introduces the who, what, when, where and how of a story in a way that entices the reader to continue reading. That is, the introduction to a story discusses the most important information first rather than saving it for the body of the paper, as is common in most academic papers. This format is often referred to as the Inverted Pyramid. By thinking of a simple upside-down triangle, the widest part at the top represents the most important, substantial and interesting information of the story.

The Inverted Pyramid format is beneficial for both editors and readers because writing in this format forces less important information to be placed at the end of the story. This makes it easier for editors to remove superfluous information if the story needs to be resized. From a readers stand point, leaving the least important information for the end allows the reader to obtain the important information up front. The reader can leave story at any time and still obtain the critical details of the event.

Finally, writing for print journalism is different than writing for broadcast journalism. In writing for print, the reader sees the prose and headline that is sometimes accompanied by a photo. Essentially, the written words must capture the reader’s attention and hold it long enough to disclose the important information. Broadcast journalism, on the other hand, requires the writer to write a script that another journalist will read. As scripts for a television broadcast are generally aired with a video, the writers of television scripts should remember that the viewer is reading the story with their eyes. That is, a television broadcast writer should not include information that the viewer will see in the video or hear in clips of people speaking. Finally, radio broadcast listeners obtain the information of a story through their ears. Radio broadcast writers should keep in mind the conversational tone of radio scripts. Each type of journalistic writing differs greatly from the others because the audience members have unique needs depending on their medium.

Writing for journalism is vastly different than writing for other academic disciplines. However, focusing on the lede sentence, writing in brief, concise language, and remaining objective are three essential elements that are valued in journalistic writing.

Prefered Bibliographic Style

Unlike academia, which often uses MLA, APA, and Chicago style, journalism uses AP (Associated Press) style. AP is much different than other citation styles and has many rules for writers to follow. The Associated Press Style Guide details the basic rules regarding numbers, abbreviations, dates and punctuation.

Common Writing Assignments

• Hard News Story - Hard news stories allow journalists to inform the public about events occurring around the world. These stories often consist of crimes, natural disasters, political events, and international affairs. In journalism classes, students may be asked to cover local events taking place around their community. These assignments often require students to attend the event, interview attendees and write a brief story that covers the event. Hard News Stories are generally formatted using the inverted pyramid.


• Feature Story - Feature stories generally cover a selected topic, invention, idea, person or event in depth. Features are longer than hard news stories, contain quotes from experts on the subject and are usually focused on topics of interest, entertainment and amusement. Unlike hard news stories, feature stories are not generally written using the inverted pyramid. Rather, they are generally structured as a traditional academic essay.


• Interviews - Often, journalism classes strive to make students comfortable with finding and interviewing others. Interview assignments usually require the student to submit a transcription of the conversation that took place between the interviewer and interviewee as well as the interviewee’s contact information.


• Scripts - Radio and television broadcast courses teach students to write scripts. Scripts can be for single stories or full broadcasts and should be timed to fit within the time allotted in the assignment prompt. Additionally, scripts should be written in the correct tone and AP format.

Key Terms

• Hard News Stories cover events such as crimes, natural disasters, political events, and international affairs. They seek to inform readers and viewers about things taking place around the world.


• Feature Stories cover topics of interest and entertainment. Features are longer and more detailed than hard news stories.


• Citizen Journalism refers to everyday citizens who write and submit stories to newspapers, blogs and TV stations.


• Associated Press (AP): one of the largest newsgathering organizations. The Associated Press has their own citation and formatting style (AP style) that journalists must follow when writing for print or broadcast.


• Lede: The opening sentence of a story that contains the who, what, when, where and how of a story. By placing these critical facts in a creative way, the lede sentence works to capture the audience’s attention and entice the audience to continue reading or viewing the story.


• Inverted Pyramid: A metaphor referencing an upside-down triangle that describes the format of context in a story. With the wider part of the triangle at the top, the inverted pyramid demonstrates that the most significant and important information is found in the beginning of the story, leaving the superfluous information for the end.
  

Helpful Resources

• DePaul University Undergraduate Journalism Program provides information for undergraduate students at DePaul interested in a BA in journalism.


• DePaul University Graduate Journalism Program provides information for graduate students at DePaul interested in a MA in journalism.


• Journalism and Journalistic writing from the Purdue Owl discusses some of the most important elements of journalistic writing.


• Reviving the Feature Story by Roy Peter Clark (Poynter Online) explores the importance and most prominent characteristics of feature stories.


• Hard News Story by Lori Kurtzmon at Seton Hill University explains the key characteristics of hard news stories in depth.


• AP Style Guide provides rules and explanations for numbers, abbreviations, dates and punctuation in AP style.

View a list of tutors who specialize in writing in journalism