What you see is news, what you know Lester Markel, American journalist, 1894-1977

is

background,

what

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feel

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opinion.

WHAT IS NEWS? It is a piece of information that can be shared to the public either by oral or written reports. It may from past, present or future events. But then writing news is not that simple. News are not some random facts written on a newspaper. Always remember that news should be: Interesting News should capture the interest of the readers Truthful You should state all the facts that are included on the news stoey. Of course, you should not tell a lie since journalisms major purpose is to alert the readers of what is happening around them. Accurate As said earlier, news are not attributed to some rndom facts that are compiled. News should consist accurate informations for the sake of the readers. Factual Pieces of information should be based from facts or actual happenings. News writing is not a guessing game. Concrete evidences are needed. Unbiased As a journalist you should not take sides. You should cover both sides of the news story.

WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF NEWS? Conflict A lot of news stories shows conflict.

romance or adventure all those intense news about struggles can really get on our nerves. Writing a romance or adventure story adds a sweet taste to our reading trip.

Oddity or unusualness A story that does not happen usually. Out-of-ordinary things that may make the readers curious. Animals

Strange things about animals can be big news. Numbers Many news have statistics. Numbers that may represent the number of casualties, population,etc. Human interest This news stirs up compassion from the readers. Timeliness Writing the newest side of the story.

What are the types of news stories? 1. Straight news story =) written in straightforward fashion =) facts are listed from the most important to the least important

Why use inverted pyramid? It can easily give the reader an idea of what is the news about. It makes the job of the headline writer easier 2. Interpretive( interpretative) =) assists the reader to interpret the facts in the story 3. News feature or news article =) an enlightening material of news events =) it is halfway between a news story and an editorial Why is it compared to an editorial and a news story? =)news feature can be associated to a news story because they are both based on facts. However, a news story is commonly based on personal sources while a news story is based on facts gathered from printed sources. =)news feature and editorial are both in expository form.

Where can we get news?

Everything that is happening inside the school premises can be classified as news. According to the book Basic Journalism written by Eufemia C. Estrada and Rosario P. Nem Singh, the following can be sources of news: Beats= also known as the backbone of news The principal=for inside information about school problems, plans for school improvements, etc. The advisers and club officers= for their club meeting either from past, present or future, schedule of events. Other sources may be: Students School personnel School calendar News paper files Notices Memorandums

Who gathers the news? Reporters are the man for the job. Keep in mind that reporters are not born, they are trained. A reporter should: 1. Understand the story before covering it Possess background information about the news he is covering Know the possible news sources and their connection to the news Know the type of news story expected

2. Make arrangements in advance before the deadline 3. Be prepared to conduct an interview Be candid and polite Make a good impression and be polite Explain that you are a reporter Do not argue. You are sent to gather information and opinions 4. Work as close to the event as possible Be at the place ahead of time Get a good position

What is the lead? Leads are the first impression in a news It also helps in setting the mood of your news story Includes who, what, when, where and how

straightforward declarative sentence, usually with the verb in simple past tense: subject-verbobject.

What are the types of lead? 1. Summary lead The most traditional lead used in journalism It gives a quick summary It contains the essence of the story (i.e. the most important, but not necessarily all, of the 5 Ws and H -- who, what, when, where, why and how). EXAMPLE: This evening at about 9:30 p.m. at Ford's Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathburn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President. 2. Question lead Use when the story has public relevance to the reader

EXAMPLE: How does your website conversion rates compare to other sites in your industry? 3. Punch, capsule or cartridge lead Short and punchy to attract the readers Blunt statements to summarize the article

EXAMPLE: The President is dead. Friday the 13th is over, but the casualty list is still growing. 4. Statement or direct quotation Effective if quote is good and important Used in speech reporting

EXAMPLE: "You really don't know what freedom is until you have had to escape from terrorist captivity", says Tom Dennon, an Air Force pilot stationed in Iraq. 5. Contrast lead Grab the readers attention by comparing different things

EXAMPLE: Less than 3 years ago, two college friends decided to build a website to exchange their favorite videos.

Today Your Tube is owned by Google and gets over 25 million unique visitors to the site each month.

6. Direct-address or direct-appeal lead Directly speaks to the reader Enhances the interest of the reader since it directly talks to them

EXAMPLE: Your website conversion rates will increase by 50% in one month.

You will see measurable increases in web results if you follow our new "10 Points to Web Success" program announced this week. 7. Descriptive lead or Picture Lead Describes how an event happened

EXAMPLE: Standing tall and straight, easy to smile, unfurrowed brow under glistening eyes, Mary told of her dramatic attitude change, having seen her business results turn around after bringing in a consultant. TIPS ON WRITING LEADS Dont forget about the 5Ws and H(who, what, where, why, when and how) Don't overwrite the lead, or the article, with adjectives and adverbs. Don't use unfamiliar names in the lead. Put the news at the beginning consider everything that must be in the lead, then write down those elements in subject-verbobject order. Most of the time, who, what and when make up the fundamentals of a lead

Never awake me when you have good news to announce, because with good news nothing presses; but when you have bad news, arouse me immediately, for then there is not an instant to be lost. Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor, 1769-1821

COPYREADING WHAT IS COPYREADING? Copy reading is the process of correcting, revising and arranging the materials that are to be included in the paper. In simple terms, copy reading is editing the news stories. WHAT DOES A COPYREADER NEEDS? The papers stylebook Dictionary A heavy black or blue pencil for corrections

WHAT DOES THE COPYREADER DO? According to the book Advanced Campus Journalism written by Ceciliano-Jose Cruz, a copyreader: Corrects grammar He should be good in English. He must have good eyes on spotting errors on the materials that he edits. Checks spelling His next best friend should be the dictionary. The dictionary provides the correct spelling of the words. Deletes opinion views

A news story is different from an editorial. As characterized earlier, news should be unbiased. Therefore, opinions dont have a spot on the news. Opinions belong on the editorial section of the paper. Deletes questionable matters Libel, sedition and rebellion are examples of these so-called questionable matters. Libel is a written defamation or name calling. Sedition is the act of urging a rebellion against the government while rebellion is the act of open resistance to the authorities. Copyreaders should be careful with dealing with these things because they are punishable by law. Corrects redundancy and verbal deadwood Redundancy is when you repeat an idea or when you deliberately point out the obvious while a deadwood is a useless phrasing done by a journalist Examples: (Redundancy) Final conclusion delete final (Deadwood) At the present time replace it with now Corrects errors in punctuations Why are punctuations needed? Punctuations show the relationships of ideas in a material. Using inappropriate punctuations may lead to confusion. Corrects errors in fact This is classified as one of the copy readers most important job. It is nearly impossible to check the accuracy of each and every news submitted to the copy reader. Therefore, a copy reader should always be updated of what was happening.

Guard against criticism He should know and follow the policy of the paper, its code of ethics and the other factors which may affect the papers credibility.

STEPS IN COPYREADING 1. Mechanical reading The first reading Getting the meaning of the story Correcting obvious errors 2. Content editing Checking the use of words Finding the lead (in news stories) Arranging the paragraphs 3. HEADLINE WRITING

THE SYMBOLS

HEADLINE WRITING WHAT IS A HEADLINE? = an assumed title of a news story = it suggests what the news is all about = it all sets the mood

A GOOD HEADLINE Uses common abbreviations Should catch attention Answers many Ws Should catch attention Should summarize the whole news story Uses short familiar words Should be grammatically correct Should not state anything that is not in the news It is better if you would use positive headlines Use active verb unless the situation is more important than the doer Use present forms for past stories and infinitive form for future events Use comma(,) as punctuation mark rather than and.

HOW TO WRITE A HEADLINE? 1. Underline the important words Include the 5Ws and H 2. Summarize the news using the key words Create a simple phrase Make sure that it makes sense 3. Separate the thoughts Divide the WHOS, WHATS, and etc. 4. Use simple words 5. Observe grammar rules 6. Do not ever use A, AN and The. They make weak headlines THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEADLINES Flush Left Headline It consists of two or three lines of headline, each one set flush left to the left side of the space. Pianist keeps O Canada, say

city's singers in good tune

can you see it was a mistake

Banner Headline Banner headlines are words printed in extra large letters across the top of the cover page of the newspaper.

Inverted Pyramid Headline inverted pyramid headline is that it concentrates on presenting pertinent facts first. The headline is created from the informative facts presented at the start of the story.

Cross-Line Headline t does not span the entire width of the page, but it does run across all the columns of the story it pertains to. The cross-line headline is one of the simplest types of headlines, consisting of a single line and one or more columns in width. SOURCE : http://www.ehow.com/info_8440583_types-headlines.html#ixzz2tzuMTyvn

TYPEFACE TERMS

ROMAN or ITALIC Roman type is straight up and down. Italic type is slanted.

SERIF or SANS-SERIF A serif font, such as this one from the Times family, has short, mostly perpendicular lines (called "serifs") attached to its letters. In print, most body text is set in a serif font. The serifs enhance readability by helping readers visually distinguish the letters. A sans-serif font, such as this one from (I believe) the Ariel family, has no such lines. Sans-serif fonts are more common in heds than in body text in most newspapers. (Online, research suggests both serif and sans-serif are equally legible for body text. As you can see, sans-serif type "feels" a bit lighter, which some online designers prefer.)

BOLD, MEDIUM or LIGHT: Type has a variety of weights, each with a different impact. Main heds typically use the standard or medium weight; hammers, slammers, kickers or other "display" heds may use contrasting weights.

EXPANDED or CONDENSED: I can't show this one easily on a Web page, but type width is another variable. Type can be set with a little extra space than usual between the letters (expanded) or a little less space than usual between the letters (condensed). Computers make it easy to either "squeeze" or "stretch" a hed to fit its space. (But use this capability with caution; it's easy to create something ugly.) There also are terms for the width of spaces between letters (kerning) and between lines of type (leading, pronounced "ledding"). A couple of boxes back, for instance, you may have noticed that the serif font had more leading than the sans-serif one. Variations in both kerning and leading are designed to enhance readability.

COMMON HEADLINE VOCABULARIES o 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Word and meaning Air to make know, to broadcast Assail to criticize strongly Axe to remove from a job Back to support Ban to not allow to do something Bar to officially say that something must not be done Bid an attempt Blast an explosion Blaze a big fire Cite to mention; to give as a reason Claim to declare to be true Claim to kill Curb to limit; to control Example Iran airs video of boats with US ships in Gulf Green groups assail Govt energy plans Rolls to axe up to 2,300 jobs Call for factory day care centresbacked Court bans couple from naming son Friday Reformers barred from elections Chad, Sudan make new bid for peace Blast kills US troops Blaze destroys 50 houses Management cites labour unrest for shutdown Man claims ghost sighting Bombs claim 40 Lifestyle changes can curb climate change

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Dim to become weaker Dub to give a name or description to Due expected Ease to reduce or lessen Eye to watch with interest; to have as a goal Fault to criticize; to say someone or something is wrong Flay to accuse; to criticize strongly Foe enemy; rival; competitor Foil to prevent from succeeding Grip control; to take control of Gut to destroy by fire Haul a large amount of something illegal that has been taken Haul an amount of something that has been won or achieved Heist theft Helm the head of an organization, project, etc. Hike an increase Ink to sign

Hopes dim for ending crisis Japan dubs activists terrorists Decision on attempted bribery casedue today Authorities ease restrictions on Koh Smui flights Thai team eyes 10 golds Tests fault SUVs and pickups NGOs flay govt for rushing bill Farmers foe: Smog damage to crops costs billions Gang uses phones to foil police Army chief tightens his grip Fire guts part of Bo Bae market Cocaine haul tops a tone Suphan Buri add eight medals to goldhaul Two held over Bt17-million van heist Hughes takes helm at City Opec says no to output hike MoU to be inked on eradication of opium crops

SOURCE: http://toromagn.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/news-headline-vocabulary/ UNIT COUNTING unit -j,i,l,t,f and all punctuations except the em dash (--), and the question mark (?) 1 unit - the question mark, space, all figures, capital JILTF, all lower case letters except jiltf 1 units - the em dash, lower case m and w, and all capital letters except capital M and W and JILTF 2 units - capital M, W

ACTIVITY 1 Write a summary lead using the following information WHO: The News South Wales (NSW), Malaysian Liew Chiew Seng, Victor Chang WHAT: state government is challenging a decision to grant parole to Malaysian Liew Chiew Seng Why: killed heart surgeon Victor Chang Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/9/24/nation/12072413&sec=nation