Guidelines for writers
In seeking to increase good communication for our family of churches, one of the main problems we have is the nature of the articles submitted! We do want to hear about what is going on in church X because we’ve heard good stories about what is going on in church X – but all too often it’s presented in the dullest way possible!
But, writing news stories isn't particularly difficult. It does take practice and not everyone will be an expert but if you follow the guidelines below you should be able to create effective news items without too much stress.
Here are some tips – plagiarised from news organisations worldwide!
Tell a Good Story
One of the hardest things about writing a news item is knowing how to begin – rather like telling a good story.
| Tell news stories – don’t write church reports |
Imagine you are just back from a trip to China and are off to meet your friends to tell them all about it. Unless you and your friends are trainspotters, the last thing you would do would be to tell them the time and type of every train you took to get from A-to-B. Instead, you would tell them an amusing or exciting anecdote about what happened while you were there.
Or, “Somewhere Community Church are running yet another Alpha course” is not interesting – unless of course your Alpha course has an unprecedented number of people on it! Telling someone’s story will be a lot more interesting.
Similarly, when starting to write, you need to grab your reader's attention, to make them want to stop whatever they are doing and to listen to what you have to say.
The Inverted Pyramid
| Does the story still work if it gets shortened - either by the editor or the reader? |
This refers to the style of writing which places the most important facts at the beginning and works "down" from there. Ideally, the first paragraph should contain enough information to give the reader a good overview of the entire story. The rest of the article explains and expands on the beginning.
In our soundbite age, readers often read the first paragraph or two and make a decision whether to bother with the rest!
A good approach is to assume that the story might be cut off at any point due to space limitations. Does the story work if the editor only decides to include the first two paragraphs? If not, re-arrange it so that it does.
The Five Ws and the H
This is the crux of all news – you need to know six things:
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- When?
- Why?
- How?
| Ask: What does the reader want to know? |
Any good news story provides answers to each of these questions. You must drill these into your brain and they must become second nature.
For example, if you wish to cover a story about a local sports team entering a competition you will need to answer these questions:
- Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are the supporters?
- What sport do they play? What is the competition?
- Where is the competition? Where is the team normally based?
- When is the competition? How long have they been preparing? Are there any other important time factors?
- Why are they entering this particular competition? If it's relevant, why does the team exist at all?
- How are they going to enter the competition? Do they need to fundraise? How much training and preparation is required? What will they need to do to win?
Final tips
It's About People: News stories are all about how people are affected. In your sports story, you might spend some time focusing on one or more individuals, or on how the team morale is doing, or how the supporters are feeling.
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An ‘angle’ can often be reinforced with a suitable image
Don't use ‘I’ or |
Have an Angle: Most stories can be presented using a particular angle or "slant". This is a standard technique and isn't necessarily bad - it can help make the purpose of the story clear and give it focus. Examples of angles you could use for your sports story:
"Team Tackles National Competition"
"Big Ask for First-Year Coach"
"Local Team in Need of Funds"
Include a good image: A good photo or image will significantly increase the chances of someone reading your story.
Keep it Objective: You are completely impartial. If there is more than one side to the story, cover them all. Don't use "I" and "me" unless you are quoting someone. Even if you’re writing it about your own church, it makes a much more interesting read if it sounds like you’re an impartial observer!
Quote People: For example: "We're really excited about this competition," says coach Bob Dobalina, "It's the highest target we've ever set ourselves".
Don't Get Flowery: Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Don't use lots of heavily descriptive language. When you've finished, go through the entire story and try to remove any words which aren't completely necessary.
Guidelines for writers, produced by Salt and Light Ministries www.saltlight.org/europe
Editor: Andy O’Connell andyo@occ.org.uk
Updated 26 May 2006
Credits/references
www.mediacollege.com/journalism/news/write-stories.html
www.studentbmj.com/write/how_to.php
www.bbctraining.com/pdfs/newsstyleguide.pdf
http://europe.saltlight.org/ministries/admin (follow the link to Communication)