Writing an Article for a Newspaper

An article is a written work published in a print or electronic medium for the purpose of propagating the news and other information. It is like a direct conversation with the reader and it discusses current or recent news of either general interest or of a specific topic, i.e. Sports, politics, trade, etc.

A news article can contain photographs, statistics, graphs, diagrams, interviews, polls, debates on the topic, eye witness reports, etc. The writer can directly answer the possible questions in the minds of the audience through facts and other information. References to the people while adding opinions and quotes are common in an article. News articles cover the basics of current events. They answer the questions: who, what, where, when, why and how?

There are certain elements that are common to almost all articles. An article will follow a format appropriate for its type. Preferable format for an article is narrative format, but news articles are commonly written in inverted pyramid style. There are five major elements that are essential in the structure of a news article.

1.       Headline

The headline is the title of the news article. The headline should be short, does not include a lot of detail, and should catch the readers’ attentions. It is normally not a complete sentence, and tries to summarize the main idea or subject of the article.

2.      Byline

This line shows the name of the author of the article. It may also include the address of the author and the publication or news source for which he or she writes.

3.      Lead

The lead is the first paragraph, but it is written to provide a detailed preview of the entire story. It summarizes the story and includes all of the basic facts. The lead will help readers decide if they want to read the rest of the story, or if they are satisfied knowing these details.

4.      Body

They are the paragraphs which follow the lead. They develop the ideas introduced by the lead, and give more information in the form of explanations, details, or quotes.

5.      Conclusion or closing quotation

Conclusion is the sum up of all the information and opinion that are discussed in the article. This is not always possible as there will be a number of contradicting opinions and viewpoints in an article.