EN 2112: Journalism I
Language for writing journals
Looking at different news items in news papers and
journals. Examine them under the following headings: vocabulary, sentence
structure, prose style, organization. Discussion
News writing style
· What
characteristics does good writing demonstrate? Discuss the following under two
headings. Authoring (creating document) and crafting (actual writing)
- Authoring: a sense of the audience and style
(appropriateness), a sense of purpose (content), a sense of direction
(developing the ideas)
- Crafting: organization-clear and in a logical
manner, using the conventions-spelling, lay out, getting the grammar correct,
varied sentence structure, linking ideas in different ways, having a good range
of vocabulary
Writing news reports
· Familiarization
with headlines of different news items, sub-head/s, straight news, lead.
Writing in the third person point of view
· Planning,
drafting, revising, re-drafting, publishing
Feature styles
· How feature
writing differs from ‘straight’ news. Examine the two types, can slip into 1st person point of
view, making the piece of writing more personal.
· List
characteristics of different feature articles
Crafting a news story
· Focus: how parts
are linked together through cohesive devices, how sentence structures can vary to
develop meaning, the role that is played by punctuation.
· Use a checklist
which focus on the overall content and organization Answer these questions.
- Audience: who is your audience? What interest
do they have in the subject? What do they already know about this subject?
- Purpose: What do you want to accomplish by wring
this news item / feature article? Is it to entertain / educate / inspire them
to do something / help them understand something new / see something from a new
point of view / change their minds about something?
- Writing stage: write main idea in a complete
sentence, ask your self, Is it clear to you / your audience? Write support
material. Ask yourself, do you need to be more specific / develop any idea
more? Does your discussion move smoothly? Analyze your conclusion.
