Endings

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 469.

Unless you are using the traditional inverted pyramid style and you expect the bottom of your story to be trimmed by an editor, it's a good idea to have an ending in mind when you begin writing, much as it is helpful to have a destination in mind when you set out on a journey. This

is particularly important in broadcast news because of the way it's presented. Unlike print or online news, broadcast news is linear — the audience can't choose the order in which they'll receive the information — and research has found that viewers and listeners tend to remember best what they hear last. For that reason, many broadcast stories conclude with a summary ending, reinforcing the story's main point.

Endings often echo beginnings, in that they return to an important place or a person. In a chronological narrative, the ending is what happens last. If a story has raised a problem, the ending might offer a solution. Endings frequently look toward the future, to what might happen next. And occasionally a story may end with a strong quote or a sound bite. This is rarely justified, however, and should be used only when the quote is so powerful that writing anything more would be a letdown for the audience.

TELLING THE STORY by Deborah Potter

executive director of NewsLab (www.newslab.org),

an online resource center for journalists in Washington, D.C.