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Newspapers

What Are the Facts?

The summary lead usually answers one or more of the most important of the W and or H questions. Which elements are most important will depend on your story and its intended audience.

After the lead, the remaining facts should follow in order of importance. Details and background information usually appear at the end of the story. After you have planned your story, follow these rules to assure that your story will be easy to read:

• Stick to the facts! There is no place in news writing for the opinions or assumptions of the reporter.
• Use short sentences. Sentences should express ideas clearly. Use no more words than necessary. The average sentence length should be 16 to 19 words.
• Use short paragraphs. Short paragraphs are easy to read and will hold your readers' attention. Average paragraph length should be two to five sentences.
• Use the active voice. "Bill threw the ball" is better than "the ball was thrown by Bill."
• Use short, simple words. Why make it difficult? Instead of "deficiency," use "shortage"; "attempt" - "try"; "prior to" - "before"; "construct" - "build"; "this point in time" - "now."

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