Writing a News Story
News stories are those informative pieces of writings that give a reader an important message and an alert of what, when, where, why and how things have happened.
New stories are either short posts that give an overview of the information and the topic instead of wandering around the irrelevant background and future prediction details.
Another type of news posts is the one which is completely informative. It discusses the background, foreground, and the relevant future prediction details as well.
Nowadays news posts are a strong part of Journalism writing. Content generation in the form of news posts are not only common but is also a widely acceptable form of perceiving information.
Let’s move on to understanding the general guidelines of writing news stories.
The first and foremost basic yet the most important rule to follow while writing a news story is; to understand the concept of 5 W’s and 1 H.
5 W’s stand for Who, What, Why, When, and Where and 1 H stands for How. These 6 traits are the bottom line of writing any news story. Any news story either a short post or a long post should answer these questions and cover the background with details surrounding these questions.
Who?
The question who should answer the point of focus you are talking about i.e. your subject or either your object.
For example, If you are talking about a political leader than the question who will answer the person of attention in that political party i.e. who he is?
On the other hand, the question who may also answer the followers and supporters of that political leader.
What?
The question ‘what’ answers the cause and specification of the subject or the object.
For example, It will answer the association of that political leader. It will define the cause and reason of that political leader to come out in public for a speech. It will also answer the association of public and supporters.
Where?
The question where answers the location of the subject or the object which is the core attention of the news story. It defines that where the action is being taken place.
For example, the location where the political leader will give his speech and the supporters would gather to listen to the speech.
When?
The question when defines the time. The time when the action would take place.
For example, at what time, the political leader would commence the speech.
Why?
The question why and what may look similar, but both have their own differences
The question why answers the detailing behind holding the particular event.
For example, why the political leader is holding this speech for the public and its supporters. It usually connects the question what, defining the details, causes and specifications in detail about the background and the foreground.
How?
The question how answers the details of how an event will take place. It defines the preparation of the event. How many efforts would make this event possible? and questions similar to that.
For example, a political leader holding that speech would need a certain amount of fundraising to sponsor that event, so how much fundraise he needs to make that event possible and how many people and party workers are putting in their efforts to make this event possible?
These 6 points including 5 W’s and 1 H is the crux of writing a fluent and easy to understand the news story. In our next blog, we will be coming up with more information regarding the news story writing style, till then stay tuned with us!