6.2 The Structure of a News Article

Every newspaper genre has a particular structure which helps organize the information of the story in a certain way, logically and thus make it familiar for the readers to read and comprehend the article.

• Do you like writing articles? Would you like to devote your career to print media?

• Have you ever thought about writing stories in English? Where could you print your own stories?

The text “Story Structure” written by Jim Hall [1] will give you some useful information about the ways of writing news stories. While reading the text define these ways and then together with your groupmates discuss both advantages and disadvantages of all the ways how to write news items described in this particular text. Think which way of presenting information you personally choose.

Text 1. Story Structure

You have several options when it comes to the structure of your story. You can choose a chronological order, where you present the key events in your story as they occurred. It is more likely, though, that you will use one of the three traditional news forms: a) the inverted pyramid, b) the narrative or c) the hourglass.

T he most popular structure for news stories is the inverted pyramid. In the inverted pyramid, the information is arranged in descending order of importance. The most important material is placed at the beginning of the story, and less important material follows. Succeeding paragraphs explain and support the lead. 

The inverted pyramid is popular because it still serves readers well. It tells them quickly what they want to know. It also serves the reporter by forcing him / her to sharpen his / her news judgment, to identify and rank the most important elements of the story. But the inverted pyramid has big disadvantages. Although it delivers the most important news first, it does not encourage good writing. Many times stories do not have an ending crafted by the writer; they simply end. There is no suspense. Reporters tend to lose interest, time and energy. Writing in the second half of the story is casual at best, and poor at worst.

People are prominent in the story, and they are responsible for the action. The story has a beginning, middle and end. Quotations sound like real speech. The words and actions of the characters reveal motives.

A third story structure, the hourglass, combines some of the best elements of both the inverted pyramid and the narrative. It consists of three parts: a top, which tells the news quickly; the turn, a nimble transition; and the narrative, a chronological retelling of events. The hourglass works well with police stories, courtroom dramas and other incidents that lend themselves to chronological narration. The hourglass has several advantages: readers get the news high in the story; the writer gets to use storytelling techniques; and it encourages a real ending.

As you already know, a well organized newspaper article helps readers understand the story better and find in the text the necessary information a reader looks for. From the following text you will know about several ways of structuring your news article. Study them thoroughly and compare with the Belarusian tradition of organizing a news item. Do you see differences or common features?

Text 2. The Structure of a News Story [2]

When you organize your news stories, first find the news peg (the reason for doing the story, the new information), and place that in the lead. Then in the body, tell the reader the rest of the story, providing details as needed to make it complete and balanced, in decreasing order of importance. Of course, any good news story will be sprinkled liberally with quotations throughout.

Although no story can fit into a formula, the following structure is fairly typical of news stories:

Opening	Lead: the first paragraph that tells the most important of the 5W’s and H. Second paragraph: tells the rest of the 5W’s if they were not included in the lead.
Catchall paragraph(s)	Elaborates on the lead. Expands on information introduced in the lead. Answers the who, what, when, where and why in more detail. The why and how may be left to later.
Background information	Provided if it is a follow-up story that gives new details of an ongoing story. Gives earlier details, or background, on what has occurred and has been reported on before. Sometimes simply provides explanatory material necessary to understand the story.
Sales message	If appropriate to the story, a quotation or a statement about what an event or situation means to the reader. Gives the significance of the event or situation. Answers the question of why readers should pay attention.
Transition to details	Transitional statement or words that lead the reader into the details of the story. Example: “Police said the accident occurred …” Example: “The council broke into open detail when Mayor Smith announced…”
Details needed to complete a story	Organized into blocks (or paragraphs) of unified details. Each paragraph provides one aspect of the enfolding story in decreasing order of importance. May need to go to a chronological retelling of some stories in order to make it readable, such as kidnapping.

You can get acquainted with one more way of organizing information in a news story. It is a beginner's guide [3] to writing news stories where writers will learn the basic and somewhat flexible format of news article writing.

Structure of a News Article: