There are many ways journalists work, and many ways a piece of news can be written.
The first of the following tutorials will show how someone with no journalism experience can write a piece of news. As you probably expect, this is much simplified. The purpose of this tutorial is to get a beginning journalist through their first report.
As a person writes more, they will naturally find and develop their own style.
The bare minimum requirements for an article on The Speaker include:
– A reliable source. This can be the newsmaker or news source itself, other news reports, or a variety of other sources. Basically, readers who question the veracity of a report must be able to find out if it is true.
– 250 words minimum. A good length is around 300-500 words. There is no maximum limit, except for contributors whose work requires serious editing, such as those whose English is less than fluent — in those cases, send short articles so as not to burden editors. (For BREAKING news, the minimum is 80 words.)
Before you begin the tutorial, get yourself a news subject that you want to write about. Once you have a subject (any subject — this is just a tutorial, although we will publish it if it is newsworthy and you send it to us).
Here is a lesson on the basics of AP style — the style used at The Speaker — and some quizzes (under construction).
After you have written three news articles, you can build on your ability by proceeding to Intermediate news writing 201.
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By The Speaker