 My Tricia Dora-Bora from the Bhupan Hazara School of Mass Communication, Krishna Kanta Hanik State Open University, would like to co-deally welcome you all to another audiovisual counseling class. In today's class, we're going to discuss Unit 11 of a second semester mass communication paper that is journalism. Unit 11 deals with news writing. In the earlier unit, that is unit number 10, you were introduced to the concept of bit reporting and also a brief overview of the different reporting bits. Today in this particular class, we're going to talk a little bit about news writing. As we've already learned, the duty of a journalist does not end with reporting alone. A good journalist should also be very much well versed in the skills of news writing and also must be able to present the news for the readers in a very much simple and understandable manner. In this particular unit, we shall learn about how to write a good news story because a news story has different elements to it and each of the elements has its own place and significance. Moreover, news writing is very much different from other kinds of creative writing and there are certain different principles which needs to be followed while writing a news report and all of these different elements will be dealt in this particular unit. Moreover, this particular unit will serve as a guide to the basics of news writing. A thorough understanding of these basic concepts along with regular reading of newspapers. An ample practice of news writing will definitely sharpen your news writing skills and contribute towards making you a complete journalist. So let us deep dive into today's unit. First of all, let us understand what are different principles of news story. The first and most important principle is lead writing. Now what is lead writing? Lead writing is a very important part of an article. Basically, it should be written in an attractive manner to catch the attention of the reader. By reading the lead paragraph, the reader should be able to find the basic who, what, where, when of a news story. In other words, if the reader doesn't have the time to read the entire article, then the lead should give them a summary of the story. Second most important principle is interviewing. The subject of the news story should be researched very much thoroughly before being written. If there is any interview that is needed to be required or needed to be taken, it must be handled very much carefully. Then the third most important principle of a news story is quotes. Reading quotations or quotes is one of the most fundamental essential part of any news writing. It is very important not simply to tell the reader what has happened but also to illuminate the different facts by giving them quotes from multiple sources including the witnesses and the experts on the subject of the article. The fourth most important principle is headline. The headline of a news story needs no introduction. It needs to be put in such a way that it can capture the attention of the reader as well as reveal the substance of the news story. The first thing when we do when we pick up a newspaper is we scan the newspaper as a whole. We scan the different headlines and we try to read those news stories whose headlines are very eye catching, whose headlines are very unique. This is why it is always said that the headline of a news story should be concise, specific, informative. In fact it should be attractive as well as eye catching. The fifth most important principle of a news story is ethics. Following ethics plays a very important one in writing news stories. Most all of the news organizations should adhere to different ethical norms and regulations. The journalistic code of ethics should be strictly followed while writing news stories. In fact the news stories should be accurate, objective and not biased. Now let us come to the structure of a news story that is how a news story should be written. What is the basic structure that should be followed? Now understanding the concept of news writing, it is actually a skill that every journalist is required to develop at home with experiences. With experiences comes the skill of writing a news story. However whatever the case may be there is a structure to be followed, there is a basic format to be followed while writing a news story. Now in the most basic sense a news report has to have some of the important elements in it. Let us try to analyze those elements. The first and foremost is of course headline. You are very much familiar with the term headline. It is that part of a news story which first catches the eye of the reader. When you see in different examples, when you see in different news stories in print media or electronic media, it is the title of the news story that actually catches your attention and gives you the interest to read or to understand what the news story is all about. And usually the headline is written in a very few sizes which is little bit bigger than the rest of the news story. The font size is a little bit bigger in size and the writing style is also different. The headline identifies the reader's area of interest and also introduces and summarizes the story. And it is usually after reading the headline that the reader decides whether or not to read the rest of the story. The second important element is the byline or the credit line. Now you must have actually seen that usually below the headline or the left side of the news story is the credit line or the name of the person who has written that particular news story and it is called the byline or the credit line and it identifies the source of the news story. Then another important element is the deadline. Below the credit line or the byline and just before the actual news story begins or it starts. You must have seen the date of the news story along with the name of her place. That is the date in which the particular news story was published and the place from where the news story has been given. This is known as a deadline. The date mentioned is a date on which the event has taken place and on which the reporter has filed the story and the place mentioned is the place from where the reporter has filed the news story. Another element we would like to talk about is the lead. Just where the date line ends starts the main part of the report or the main part of the news story. Usually the first paragraph of the news story is known as a lead and it is usually written in bold or in larger size. That is a larger font size which is used in the rest of the part of the story. The size is a bit larger than that. However this variation varies from publication to publication. The lead usually tells the story in a nutshell and gives the important information particularly the most important of the five W's and one H. Then let us come to the body which is another important element of the news story. The body gives the elaborate details of the event including all of the five W's and one H and the related explanations of the event. The body is a part where the actual story is narrated and it describes what the story is all about. Usually the lead provides just a gist of the actual event, just a summary of the event but the body gives a full description of the entire news story. Now let us come to another important concept of the news story that is the inverted pyramids style. Now what is the inverted pyramids style? News stories are usually written in the inverted pyramids style in order of importance. Now as far as this particular style of writing news story is concerned the most important events or the most important part of the news story is written in the first paragraph and that is followed by the less important parts of the news story and this is what the inverted pyramids style is all about. Of course in this particular style of news writing there is no such conclusion. The most important interesting facts are arranged in the lead and the least important points are narrated in the end. Now there are different reasons for applying such inverted pyramids style of news writing. We can understand these reasons from two point of view. One is a reader's point of view and the other is from the editing point of view. Now how do we understand why inverted pyramids style is written from the reader's point of view? Now the main reason for writing the story in this particular fashion is the consideration of a reader's convenience. Many a time the reader doesn't have enough time to go through the entire story or for that matter all the news stories are published in daily newspaper. They can just scan a few paragraphs of all the news items and mostly the important ones published in the front page and then turn to the other pages in accordance with the interest. The news story is written in such a manner that information is scattered throughout the story and the readers have to struggle to find out the most important ones. The reader's concentration is reduced and they leave the story half way. So many a time even important stories are ignored by the readers for this particular reason. Now there is another reason why this inverted pyramid style is followed that is from the editing point of view. Now editing of news stories is very much a very important exercise because the stories are required to be brought to that particular state where it should fit into the particular space of the newspaper because reporters always write the stories in a hurried way and in the process sometimes they might ignore certain important elements. Okay, that's why editing is a very crucial step in a news story. So news reports there might be some errors which needs to be corrected. There might be certain sentences which might be grammatically wrong. So those corrections needs to be done before it can finally be submitted for publication. Now let us try to understand how to write a news copy. Now we have so far we have talked about the different elements of a news story. The inverted pyramid style of a news story where editing is very much important as far as news writing is concerned. Now we shall try to understand how exactly we need to write a news story copy. How should we go ahead and prepare a news story? Now in a previous unit you have all kind of learned or studied about the 5Ws and 1H. The 5Ws are usually consist of what, why, where, when, who and how is 1H. So when you try to answer to these questions, when you search to answer to these different questions that you pose for writing a news story then in that process your news story comes to the fore. If you understand the basic principles for writing each of the elements that makes a news story we will be able to understand on how to write the anti-new story very much easily and with confidence. So that is why a news item is always required that you should answer the questions to like what happened, why did that particular event takes place, which place did that event takes place, when didn't happen, who was involved in that particular event and how did it take place. So if your news story can answer to this 5Ws and 1H or in other words to these questions then you can be very much well assured that you have written a very good news story. Now let us understand the different principles of news writing. Now we have already talked about the structure of a news story, we have talked about basic elements of a news story, now what are the different principles. Now the first principle is of course the headline which needs to be written keeping in mind that it not only introduces and summarizes the news story but also serves the purpose of attracting the reader's attention and as such it has to be very much precise and very much crisp, it must not be very lengthy but rather very short and to the point. Then let us come to the byline of the credit line which we already have talked about, the different news whippers they have different rules set of rules for writing the byline of the credit line on the basis of their own style book and credit lines within the same news whipper may also vary, some of the common styles are by a staff reporter, from a staff reporter, from a correspondent, by a special correspondent, by a reporter and so on and so forth. And usually byline of the credit line is placed on the left hand side of the news report just below the headline and in some cases it is kept left aligned while sometimes it may be aligned center above the first paragraph. Then let us come to the deadline, usually the deadline is divided in two parts, it is a place and a date, the place comes first that is followed by the date, then comes a lead which contains the most important elements of the entire news story that consists of the five blues and one H, however in certain cases also when it is impossible to you know bring together all the elements under the same umbrella in the lead and the rest of the elements should be carried in the next paragraph also. Then comes to the body, the body is a middle part of the news story and it deals mostly with the description of the entire events because the important events are placed in the lead and from what are the important events are there, if those events are described together in a detailed manner that is being considered, that is being considered or that is put into the body of the news story. Now you know there are certain rules or maybe you know there are certain guidelines to be followed in case of the as far as language of the news story is concerned because language matters you know you can write pages and pages of news story but if your language is not very proper, if your language if you have errors in the use of the language then you know the entire news story will not be eye catching, it will not be interesting at all. So let us try to you know analyze some of the basic guidelines that needs to be followed in case of the language of the news story is concerned. First of all we always tell that use very much simple language as well as short sentences. Language is much very simple as well as sentences should be quite very short. You don't need to use any technical jargons for writing a news story. The second important guideline is to avoid the use of complicated words, metaphors, figures of speech, adjectives, cliches. Then comes writing active voice wherever possible. In fact you should try to avoid writing news story in passive voice as far as possible. Then identify that follows the name like for instance age, address, job description or other information they need to be set up by paired commas like even honorific titles like mister, missus, doctor they need not be used, you can avoid those titles. And while reproducing speech directly place it within double quotes unlike in a headline where it is placed in a single quote. And of course the time element also very much important. New stories about events that might have taken place in a past tense and they should be clearly mentioned. And present tense is often used in order to emphasize the timeliness. So if you really want to emphasize on a time factor try to use the present tense as much as possible. And then this is how a news story is usually written, how a wire copy is usually written. The technique of writing a news story not only lies the skill in which it should be written. It also depends on the knowledge, it also depends on the way of writing, yes or it also depends on the structure in which you have written a particular news story. Because writing a news story is very much different than writing a novel or some research paper. So one must keep certain guidelines, one must keep these points in your mind if you want to write a proper news story. So with this I've come to the end of today's unit. I hope you have learned a few basics of news writing. Like we have almost discussed the different basic elements of a news story which consists of headline, deadline, credit line, lead, body as well as conclusion. And headline is a very important part of news story. So writing a news headline is a kind of skill. It should be very much precise. It should be eye-catching as well, it should be to the point. And of course the importance of byline or the deadline is always there. And then we should always, always try to construct a news story in the embodied parameters time as far as possible. So if you follow these guidelines, if you try to keep these things in mind, definitely we can go for writing a very good news story. So with this I've come to the end of today's discussion. Thank you all so much.