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