The Lead

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 408.

The Headline

NEWS ARTICLE STRUCTURE

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You can get acquainted with one more way of organizing information in a news story. It is a beginner's guide to writing news stories where writers will learn the basic and somewhat flexible format of news article writing.

Structure of a News Article:

The headline of a news article can be written in two different ways. The traditional way is to write the headline in a purely factual manner. This way of writing a headline conveys what the article is actually about.

The second option is to write a clever, sometimes cute headline. This works for newspapers like the Boston Herald, which runs the gamut between being newsy and being tabloid-ish. A clever headline may catch more eyes.

The headline does not have to be written first, it can be written last.

The lead is the most important part of the news story. The lead should not tease the reader. The lead needs to relay the facts of the story right up front.

State the who and the what in the lead, or the first sentence of the news article. If the when, where and how are important, include those as well. After reading the lead, the reader should know exactly what the article will cover. There should be no surprises.

If the facts themselves are completely uninteresting, or not compelling enough, you may not have a real news story on your hands.