Why Learn to Write

8/14/2019 Why Learn to Write

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The Art of Writing News Stories

Prof. Alfredo Ascanio takes a look inside composition of an article

This is the story about to write good article. Some one has said that we mustconsider headlines, captions, titles, and pictures almost as important as thearticle itself, because these things constitute the front door and show windowwhich catches the eye and interest of the persons to whom you want to sellthe ideas in your article.

Why learn to write?

Why learn to write? That rounds like a foolish quetion, but before passing it bytoo lightly, think it over. It does not mean penmanship, nor does it meansimply the casting of words, phrases, and sentences into paragraphs. But itdoes mean this: Can you write effectively? Can you influence another personthrough writing or speaking?

The average person believes that writing for publication is a mysterious sort of thing. People are born writers, it is said. Some individuals show more aptitudefor it than others, but nearly everyone with a working knowledge of Englishcan accomplish something.

What interests people?

Newspaper editors, when they decline a new or articles submitted to them hr decline them because they do not mean anything to the great mass of thepeople. Now, all experts agree on one point, and that is that the human beingis first of all interested in himself. This is but natural. It is only a corollary to thelaw of self-preservation. People like to take sides with a hero in a play, sit onthe edge of their chairs, and hope with all their might that he will get what hewants! Great, simple ideas, greatly, yet simply, expressed, can be made toreach into every mind.

What is the idea?

The Idea consists in the result that the reader is going to achieve when hefollows out your instructions. The Idea consists in the feature that makes theperson writing or written about an interesting character. And the Idea consistslargely in the unique manner in which the article is written-something new or striking that came right up and slapped the reader in the face. The result wasthat people began to talk about those stories, and the more they talked, themore famous the stories became.

Finding your story

Subjects for newspaper articles are to be found in almost every city and town,

and even in the open country. But how we to discover them? The “nose for news” is the first requisite of a good newspaper reporter. That lies at the basis



of the news story and the newspaper article. The subject must be somethingunique and novel, or perhaps something of outstanding interest.

Sources of material

In your own town, community, and state there are undoubtedly subjects of every degree of importance, from those that are of purely limited scope andhave a place in only the near by metropolitan newspaper or perhaps a on-linenewspaper, to those that are perfectly suitable for a national or internationalpublication. How are you to find them? First of all, provide yourself with anotebook. The minute you see or think of an Idea, get it into the notebook. Donot let it get away.

At this point it is advisable for you to begin to acquire some familiarity withsome newspapers eg Ohmynews.Of course you will not read these throughfrom cover to cover. Rather, you will try to get the feeling, tone, or atmosphereof this publication. Observe what kind of material is published and the way inwhich it is written. In the course of a week you will be familiar with this on-linenewspaper.This will enable you to plan your articles for this particular publication.

Gathering the material

Suppose you have secured a tip for an article. What do you do next? In thefirst place it is advisable to make some preliminary inquiries to ascertain justhow good a “story” you have. But here comes an important point. Whengathering your material remembers what kind of article you are planning towrite. It is one that deals with things that are unique, new, and unusual, out of

the ordinary? Then ask plenty of questions to bring out all of those points andmake the matter plain. Is it a “how-to-do” article? Then find the bigoutstanding accomplishments of the individual with plenty of human-interestincidents.

Remember the five “W´s”, who, what, why. When, and where, and also how.The point to emphasize here is how this particular thing differs fromeverything else. For example, a useful information article you emphasize thehow. Put some emphasis on the reason. The subject must be worthwhile. Itmust be a big and unusual enough story to command the reader’s attentionand interest.

Catching the reader’s attention

The first task of any writer is to secure the reader’s attention. His second taskis to arouse the reader’s interest, and his third task is to hold that interestthroughout the article. And, very important, the writer must remember that thesame things that catch the reader’s attention when he opens a newspaper arenaturally those things that catch the editor’s attention when he sifts amanuscript out of the morning mail.

There are four ways by which this reader attention is secured: (1) by the titleof the article; (2) by the photographs or image accompanying it; (3) by thename of the author; (4) by the beginning of the article, or the lead, as it iscalled. It the attention is not secured, all is lost.



The topic title

The titles of most popular article are short and consequently easilyremembered. And the important thing so remember in connection with thearticle title is to make it attractive enough that the casual reader will want to

read the article. Psychologists assert that not more than five units can becomprehended to advantage in a single act of attention.

The beginning of the article must be sufficiently interesting to compel thereader to keep on reading. His interest must be fed the minute it is caught. If the lead, or the beginning of the article, is not interesting, you must expect thereader to turn the page and pass to some other article that holds morepromise.

The test of a good lead for an article is this: Do you find yourself unconsciously going ahead with an article once you have read the first fewparagraphs? If you do, undoubtedly that article has a good beginning. Thelead gives the reader an idea as to what the article is about. A lead may oftenstrike the keynote of the article. One might say that the general average

length of a lead would be around 5% the length of the article itself (f or an

article of about 1,200 words).

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Why Learn to Write