Someone who writes articles for a newspaper is typically called a journalist. However, they may also be referred to as a columnist, editor, or reporter.
A newspaper is written by a journalist. The journalist must do research and interviews in order to write a credible newspaper article.
A newspaper article should contain these five main components: a headline, a byline, a lead/lede paragraph, an explanation, and any other additional information. A newspaper article should not include topic or closing sentences.
The format of a newspaper article should follow this structure: headline and byline followed by a lead/lede paragraph, explanation, and any other additional information. This is the typical format of all newspaper articles.
A newspaper is a printed publication of news, articles, advertisements, and other correspondence. Newspapers are typically printed and published at regular intervals, like daily or weekly. They can be a physical printed documents or readily available online.
The purpose of newspapers is to release important news or information to the public as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The people who write this information are called journalists. These individuals produce news stories using investigative reporting and excellent editing and newspaper writing skills. These stories are then presented to the public in the form of a newspaper.
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There are five main components of newspaper articles. The following is the correct newspaper article format:
Note that a newspaper article does not contain a topic sentence or closing sentence like in an essay.
Newspaper writing may seem like a daunting task, but following these steps will help a writer format and organize the information in a successful way.
When deciding to write a newspaper article, consider what story an audience would want to read. This should be a newsworthy story that is relevant, timely, and significant.
Relevant - Consider the location of the audience. For example, if the audience is a large city like New York City, a story about a small town event in Utah would not be relevant. Consider what the audience would find newsworthy and important to their lives.
Timely - The story should focus on something that happened in the recent past, happening presently, or happening in the near future.
Significant - Consider what information will be important to the majority of the audience. Noting the example above, would someone living in New York City find it important to know about an event in Utah? Likely, no. The story needs to be significant to achieve readers.
Consider where to can find the most accurate information for the topic; this will require research and finding credible sources and how to contact those sources. This requires in-depth research and homework.
Once interviews are scheduled, the next step is to prepare questions to ask these sources. Think of the goal and message that is being sent to the audience.
The next step is outlining the information gleaned from the sources. Writers should consider what the point of the story is going to be, which should give a rough idea of the lead/lede. This rough idea is just a starting point and may be altered in the final version. The writer should make a written outline for plans or create a working document for the outline. The first draft will follow this plan, but of course, it can and likely will be altered multiple times before the final draft is ready for publication.
A strong lead is essential to the success of an article. When thinking of how to start a newspaper article, know that the first paragraph is where the most important information needs to be addressed. Most readers are going to simply skim that lead paragraph to see if it is something they would like to continue reading, so the lead paragraph should cover the Who, What, When, and Where of the story (note: save the Why and How for later). In reality, a writer only have a few sentences to hook the reader.
A strong lead paragraph will set up the remainder of information to include. Expand beyond the lead to tell the audience the Why and How of the story. The writer should provide in-depth coverage of the most important details about the story. This will include additional background and contextual information along with information gained from interviews.
Adding direct quotations from credible sources will enhance the credibility for the article. This adds reputable value to the author and the author's organization. The process of adding quotes is up to the discretion and preference of the writer: some choose to add them while writing the article, others choose to add them once the article is written and they can see where the quotes best support their information.
Regardless of how they are added, quotes should be brief and informative. There should not be chunks of block quotes. Writers should choose portions of the interview that best support the information they are presenting to the audience. The point of quotes is to ensure the audience that the information being presented is credible and can be backed up.
To know how to write a newspaper article, it helps to see examples of short newspaper articles. Below is an example of a well written one that follows the correct format.
Two years into the pandemic, Yale's 'happiness' course is more popular than ever
By Alaa Elassar, CNN
Updated 8:15 AM ET, Sun March 20, 2022
(CNN) When Yale psychology professor Laurie Santos witnessed the severity of the depression, anxiety and stress her students were facing, she decided to do something about it.
Her "happiness" course -- which she began teaching live in 2018 -- became Yale's most popular class in over 300 years, according to the university. But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, claiming millions of lives around the world and shutting down life as we know it, her class became more important than ever.
"People were getting great evidence-based advice about how to protect their physical health -- mask up, socially distance, get a vaccine -- but people were struggling with what to do to protect their mental health," Santos told CNN.
In April 2019, Santos had 22,522 new enrollments. But in April 2020, as the pandemic started to take off, the class saw 860,494 new enrollments -- and it only continued to skyrocket. So far, more than 3.7 million people have enrolled in the class, which is available for free online through Coursera and is also being taught in person for the second time this semester.
The course went online for free about two years ago under the name "The Science of Well Being," according to the Yale Daily News. Anyone can audit the course for free, and $49 lets you complete assignments, submit them for a grade and earn a certificate of completion.
Santos' class focuses on understanding and letting go of all the superficial notions of happiness, such as the idea that a better job, fancier house, or a new relationship is the next step closer to happiness.
"All of us want to be happier," Santos said. "The problem is that we have a lot of misconceptions about what really will make us happy. We think we need to change our circumstances in major ways, but often simply behavioral and mindset changes can make a big difference in our sense of well-being."
Some of the professor's "happiness" assignments include deleting social media accounts, daily meditation, keeping a gratitude journal, and investing time in loved ones.
Students also receive a series of homework "rewirements," or practices aimed at helping students develop better habits, according to Santos. These include making more time for exercise and sleep, engaging in more social connection and random acts of kindness, taking time to savor and experience more gratitude, and mindfulness.
"I've personally become a lot happier as a result of teaching the class," Santos said. "It's given me a lot more meaning and purpose, but it also means I need to practice what I preach and make sure I'm putting in the time to focus on my own well-being."
An intervention study written by Santos and four other researchers analyzing the impact of her class concluded taking the class allows people to show a significant improvement on a standard happiness scale, exhibiting about a one-point increase on the 10-point scale.
"The present study demonstrated that well-being can be enhanced by taking a large-scale, free, online course," the study reads. "These results suggest that individuals who are exposed to academic content on the science of well-being and who engage in evidence-based practices can indeed increase their subjective well-being."
The study also showed how free, online classes can "impact mental health at large scales, and thus could become an important tool for public health initiatives aimed at improving population-wide mental health outcomes."
CNN's Ryan Prior contributed to this report.
A newspaper is a printed publication of news, articles, advertisements, and other correspondence. Their purpose is to release important news or information to the public as quickly and as efficiently as possible. A newspaper writer, known as a journalist begins by considering the five components of an article:
Journalists write articles by breaking down the process into steps: choosing a topic, researching sources, outlining the structure, writing the lead paragraph, and filling in information. The article should cover the following questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?
The newspaper: some would say it's a dying art. With the availability of the internet, millions can get the news at their fingertips, so why do we need papers delivered to our doorstep anymore? Well, it's definitely true that the internet has become a game changer, but people have always needed to be informed, and the newspaper has fulfilled that need for a long time.
Written news may be changing, but it will forever be important in our society. The rest of this lesson discusses how to write an article in the style of a physical newspaper.
The first step is to understand the structure of your newspaper article, as it's different from other forms of print. Structure is the arrangement or format of the writing. But remember, newspapers aren't structured like novels, essays, or even encyclopedia articles.
First of all, newspapers are formatted into columns, where one article may span four or five columns across the page. Large, wordy paragraphs are not appealing for the column style. Instead write short, concise paragraphs, perhaps only 2 or 3 sentences long.
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With this in mind, you will not structure your paragraphs like you normally do for an essay or English paper. You don't need to have a topic sentence, which is the opening sentence of a paragraph that states what that paragraph will be about, or a closing sentence, which provides closure in the final sentence of a paragraph. Adding these will make your paragraphs too long.
Now that we've discussed the overall structure, there are a few more items a newspaper article needs. One is a title, which is the name of the written work. Newspapers have limited space, so you need a short, but strong title that will inform readers what the article is about. In addition, it needs to also draw the attention of the readers. You may want to save writing the title until after the rest of the article is written.
The last item you need is a byline, which is the final line that states the author of the piece. A number of writers contribute to a newspaper, and so each article needs to state who wrote that piece. Remember that you can't forget to add the byline when you finish writing the article.
Lastly, you need to remember that the main focus of a news article is to give unbiased information. Unless you're writing a persuasive piece, it's really important to remain objective. Furthermore, you want to limit unnecessary language. You won't need figurative language like metaphors, hyperbole, personification, analogies, and even simple things like snark or interpretation. Again, your focus is solely on describing the incident or topic of the article. Figurative language often will only take away from the facts of the case.
The next step is to determine your content, which is the information found within the article. Each newspaper article will have its own topic, like a burglary, car accident, award that was won, or a sporting event. Newspapers have local news, national news, and even world news. Any event or incident worth mentioning can be found in a newspaper.
Before you begin writing, decide on the content you need to make a fulfilling article. To do this, start with the answers to the five W questions: who, what, when, why, and where. You can also consider the how of the case.
To see this, let's use an example topic. Imagine you're writing an article about a big star coming to the area to perform a concert. Here are the W questions you need to answer in your article:
The final question shows an example of a how question you should have for an article with this topic. By no means does this list represent the only information you should include in your article, but using the five W's, and an occasional H, will get you all the basic information for your news article. Your ultimate goal is to provide a succinct but thorough account of the event.
Once you have all the basic information, begin writing your article with those details. Keep in mind the guidelines for the structure, too.
The final step is to add in any extra details that are pertinent to your article. Depending on your topic, you may need to add in more content that readers need to know beyond the basic information.
To showcase this, let's return to our concert example. Not everyone enjoys music. Furthermore, some people who love music don't enjoy going to concerts. So why should they care about this topic? This is where you can add in further details.
Perhaps a portion of the profits from the concert will go to a local charity, or maybe the concert will be larger than expected and will affect other traffic in the area. Or maybe the performer is a huge star and this is his final tour of his career. All of these examples show further details are often needed. When this is true, include them in your article after the basic information.
To review, writing a newspaper article is different from other forms of print. To write one, follow these steps.
If you follow these steps, then you'll be able to write a concise and complete newspaper article.
