Saturday, August 15, 2009

Lesson 4

News Structure

1- Intro

Who did what? What happened?

Perhaps when and where?

2- Significance Paragraph

Answer the why and how.

Mention the most important info you

couldn’t put in intro

Tell why this important and why this news

worthy for reading

3- Quote Paragraph

A quote to show the impact

To give evidence to the fact in the intro

4- Background Paragraph

Give details and explanation about the news

This can be one or two paragraphs

More about Intor:

Who did what? What happened? Perhaps when and where?

Or, 2 or 3 short sentences of most important ideas in the news

Only very short and important facts in intro

Leave details for afterwards

Active, not passive

Present tense preferred

Don’t start with question?

Avoid abbreviations, titles, long names of people and places

Quote can be used in intro only it is very dramatic

Or, you can write intro after the body in order to be more precise

Quotes:

Choose good and colorful quotes

Quotes make news powerful, credible and live

Don’t use many quotes.

Convey the speech exactly, even if it is in slang.

Put in quotation marks “-----.”

Direct quote:

It is complete sentence.

Say his meaning in his words.

A quote can be one or two sentences, longer is more boring

Better to be in the beginning of paragraph.

Avoid complicated speeches in quote

Punctuate quote as: “-------------------------------,” said the man.

"---------------------------------،" قال الرجل.

پیاوه‌که‌ وتی، "---------------------------------."

If you had some word to explain inside quote, use brackets like in, “they (workers) are not well paid.”

Use direct quote for opinion and strong facts

Always mention the source

In between quotes, introduce or explain to keep link and fluency

Use quotes Brief, precise, various, and simple.

2- Indirect quotes

It is a speech outside quotation marks.

This type of quote is used for conveying a speech which is complicated, long, dirty, weak opinion, basic facts or when you want avoid many direct quotes.

Say his meaning in your words

Here also you need to mention source

----------------------------------------------, said the man.

Don’t mix an indirect quote with your explanation sentences.

Partial quotes

This can be one or two words or a phrase picked up

--------------------------------- “illegal” --------------.

----------------------------------- “---------------------.”

This is used to make shorter and easier

Structure Notes

Link: arrange your diverse facts in logical consequence

Balance: in conflict stories, give every side the right to accuse, respond and explain. Also, try to give them the same size of words. Balance the paragraph length.

Unity: stick to the topic in all facts you give. But you can bring extra facts only to serve the main topic.

Be accurate, easy, short, honest as usual

Sources

Mention full name and description in the first time

Afterwards, mention it in various ways

Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, -----

Maliki, the prime minister, he,…………

For people, give full name, age and profession

Ali Ahmed, 45, teacher-----.

Ahmed, he, the teacher.

When some source want to be anonymous, mention the reason

Or at least say that he declines to be named

In such case, give a description to him

An officer of Kirkuk police is better than a source in kirkuk

For common people, anonymous is unjustified

For sensitive story give imaginary names and note it

Initial letters of names is very weak

For abbreviations, mentioned the full words along with the abbreviation in between brackets

World Health Organization (WHO)

Then mention is only as WHO

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