Structure of a News Report

Structure of a News Report

Every newspaper might have its own style of writing but a general format followed by all the newspapers at base levels is systematically divided into several parts. Roughly speaking a news story structure follows 1-2-3-4 steps, that is:

1. The lead. What is the most important news? How can you write it in the clearest way and make it interesting too?
2. Elaborate on the lead.Two, three, four or five paragraphs that explain support and amplify lead
3. Key background and context of event, if needed; information that helps readers understands more about the news they are reading.
4. More elaboration of the news, in descending order of importance.

The main society lies in the body of the report. Once the introduction has been written, there are rules that must be applied to any following paragraphs. Each following paragraph should be about 30 words long which will help to present information in shorter doses and maintain interest longer. Each paragraph should aim to be as independent of the other paragraphs as far as possible (inverted pyramid structure). The journalist must present information in descending order of importance. To get a deeper understanding, a news story or report is divided into 5 parts namely;

1. Headline – tells what the story is about
2. Byline – shows who wrote the story
3. Lead – tells the most important facts (5 W’s)
4. Body – contains more information and details
5. Ending – gives something to think about