Journalists use story formats to organize information and write and publish a news story quickly. Here is one way to write a news article using a story format.
A typewriter sits next to an inverted pyramid structure for a news story. (Illustration by News Decoder)
In News Decoder’s Top Tips, we share advice for young people from experts in journalism, media literacy and education. In this week’s Top Tip, News Decoder Educational News Director Marcy Burstiner gives new journalists a way to organize information into a news narrative. You can find more of our learning resources here. And learn how you can incorporate our resources and services into your classroom or educational program or by forming a News Decoder Club in your school.
A news story doesn’t have to be tedious. But taking a complicated topic and turning it into an easy read isn’t easy. That’s where story formats come in.
In journalism, not only do reporters have to turn a bunch of information and quotes into a readable narrative, they usually have to do that quickly. They can’t sit in front of a computer screen rewriting and rewriting, fussing with every word and sentence. And they definitely don’t have time to sit and stare at an empty page for hours.
A story format is a general structure of an article that journalists can start with each time they write a story. They can plug new information into the same general structure. It allows them to write quickly without confusing readers. The two sentences that started this news article are called the lead on this story. A lead is the beginning of all journalism story formats.
The lead gets the attention of readers. Think of what information in the story is most interesting or most important. That’s what goes in your lead.
Next, you might have a quote — that’s something that someone said, word for word.
“A quote just below the lead connects the reader to the people in the story,” Burstiner said “It humanizes the story and tells readers that the reporter talked to human beings for the story.”
Note that in the quote above, I cite myself as the author of the quote. That’s called attribution. It comes just after the first sentence in the quote. If there is only one sentence in the quote, the attribution (the “Burstiner said”) goes at the end of the quote. All quotes must have attribution. But if you keep quoting someone, you only need to use their first name and identification once. After that, you can use just the last name.
If there is enough explanatory information in the lead, the story jumps right away to a quote. If not, a short explanatory paragraph should come next, as it does in this article. You don’t want to wait too long to get to the first quote, though.
And don’t be afraid to keep paragraphs short. Readers find short paragraphs engaging. Long paragraphs are daunting to read.
Useful journalism terms to know
- Lead: A start to the story that captures the attention of readers.
- Story format: A general structure for a news story that helps journalists organize information and write quickly.
- Attribution: The name of the person who is quoted.
- Paraphrase: When you reword something someone said and take off the quote marks, but still attribute the information.
- Anecdote: A little story about someone that illustrates something the article is about.
- Bookending a story: When you start an article with an anecdote about someone and then come back to that person at the end of your story.
- Kicker: A strong ending to the story.
Now comes information.
Next you want to give your readers some important facts. Think about the who, what, where, when, how and why — the necessary elements of news stories. You might have some information about who is affected by what you are talking about. In a story about a new rocket to space, some people affected might be scientists.
Or if the story talks about the first woman in space, women’s groups might be particularly excited. So this paragraph might go into detail about the people affected by the story. Or the who might be the people who are doing the thing the story is about.
“Regardless, if someone you talked to said something interesting about that, then you want to quote them,” Burstiner said. “Quotes help break up a story and make it interesting to read.”
Now, you don’t want a story that just goes from quote to quote to quote. That kind of story is almost as tedious to read as a story with no quotes. But you can tell your readers that someone said something without having it in quotes. That’s called a paraphrase.
It is important when you paraphrase someone that you don’t change the meaning of what they are said. You can change their words if those words are not between quote marks, because sometimes you can say something better than the person who said it. But you still have to attribute the information to the person who gave it to you.
Next you have more information. Again, think about the what, where, when, why and how of the story. You might have a paragraph that explains why the event or program is taking place. You might have a paragraph that explains how it will work. The important thing is to begin a new paragraph each time you explain a different facet of the story. Always keep paragraphs short, if possible.
Don’t confuse readers when you switch speakers.
When your information comes from a different person you need to introduce the new person, if possible, before you quote them. So let’s say you talked to Maria Krasinski, the managing director of News Decoder. Krasinski told you that stories should reflect different perspectives and to get different perspectives you should interview more than one person.
To bring Krasinski into the story so you can include that information, you might paraphrase something she said and then have the quote. Like this:
News Decoder Managing Director Maria Krasinski said that stories should include a diversity of perspectives. “The best way to get different perspectives is to seek out people who feel differently about the subject of your story,” Krasinski said.
So now your story explained the who and why and maybe how. You also want to include the other essential elements of the story: The when and where. Also you want to tell readers what is next. A typical story is likely about something that just happened or will soon happen.
But what happens after that? For that information you might go back to the first person you quoted in the story. Burstiner, from News Decoder, says that if you can end with a quote from that person, it is called bookending a story and gives readers a nice sense of closure.
“It is nice to end an article with a quote,” Burstiner says. “A strong ending to an article is called a kicker.”
Questions to consider:
1. A lead should grab your reader’s attention. Can you come up with a more engaging lead for this story?
2. Did this story have the who, what, where, when and how that are the necessary elements for all stories?
3. Should reporters include in a story all the information they get in the interviewing process? What might get left out?