The Process of Writing News

Using examples and exercises, The Process of Writing News takes an “impact, elements, and words” approach to demystify reporting and writing for beginners. This is a concise book that approaches writing as a process, using a pedagogy that has proven effective. In each chapter, the book addresses the roles of journalists at several levels of abstraction, beginning with their responsibilities to audiences in a democratic society, and continuing with ethical decision-making in fulfilling those responsibilities. Each chapter ends with reporting and writing exercises which allow the reader to develop skills for informing audiences and telling compelling stories in print, broadcast, and online news media and to practice and be evaluated on those skills.

 

The reader is taken through a year in the life of a fictional community, revisiting issues and stories in a series of more than two dozen linked exercises of increasing complexity, from lede writing to handling a major breaking story on deadline. There are even opportunities to report and write from the reader’s own community.

The Process of Writing News
Brian Richardson, Washington and Lee University

 

The Process of Writing News is a concise text for beginning college-level journalism students, taking an “impact, elements, and words” approach to demystify the reporting and writing process. The book is the product of the author’s 19 years as a teacher of reporting and writing, and it is a response to the emerging exigencies of media convergence, writing for multiple media, and computer-assisted reporting.

 

The text approaches writing as a process, using a pedagogy that has proven effective. In each chapter, the book addresses the roles of journalists at several levels of abstraction, beginning with their responsibilities to audiences in a democratic society and continuing with ethical decision making in fulfilling those responsibilities. Each chapter ends with reporting and writing exercises, which allows students (1) an opportunity to develop skills for informing audiences and telling compelling stories for print, broadcast, and online news media and (2) to practice and be evaluated on those skills.

 

Features

 

• Includes exercises in every chapter, along with a section on ethics and a summary/strategies section, giving students an opportunity to practice the chapter lesson and build on lessons from earlier chapters.

 

• Takes students through a year in the life of a fictional community, including tightly controlled fact sets in each chapter and a City Directory, allowing instructors to monitor student work for factual accuracy and helping students practice the skills they will need in real-world reporting and writing.

 

• Presents stories and situations reporters are faced with – accidents and emergencies, computer-assisted reporting, the legal system, using background and not-for-attribution sources, and more–to help students practice pulling together complex elements in an ongoing story.

 

• Addresses current issues in journalism including media convergence, writing for multiple platforms, and newsroom ethics, helping students understand the issues that are part of journalistic decision making and the shared and differing needs of audiences in print, broadcasting, and online media.  

 

• Focuses on the basics: the journalist’s role in a democratic society, defining news, weighing information, using their tools well, separating facts and allegations, proper sourcing, writing leads, choosing quotes and attributing properly–all of which provide students with a solid foundation of skills as they begin their careers.

 

• Includes a grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax “boot camp,” ensuring that a student’s basic writing skills are in good shape.

 

Praise for The Process of Writing News

 

The author has a keen recollection of what it’s like to learn the news writing and reporting process. Step-by-step, using real-life illustrations, the author gives students a lucid view not only of the big picture but also of all the smaller elements that comprise it. My prediction is that students who read and adapt the lessons in this book will be able to move from the classroom into the journalistic workplace with skill and confidence.

 

–Patricia A. Richards, University of Scranton