Writing Articles

General Tips

Determine Purpose and Audience

Determining you purpose will help you decide what readers should understand after they've read your article and figure out what angle you should take. Remembering your intended audience will help you decide what the style and focus of the article should be.

Distinguish between fact and opinion. 

Facts are statements that can be proven true or false.  Facts can be true by observation or by definition.  A fact that can be verified by observation include the reporter's own observations, scientific results, or observations by other witnesses.  Facts that are true by definition simply restate a definition.

Opinions cannot be proven true or false because they are based on beliefs.  The three types of opinions are judgment, statement of obligation, or prediction.  Judgments are what we usually think of when we say opinion, but they are harder to detect than you might think.  Any time a person claims something or someone is good, beautiful, intelligent, reasonable, kind, useful, or the reverse, that person is stating an opinion.  Statements of obligation tell what "should" "ought to" or "must" occur.  Who is to say what should be?  Predictions are also sneaky.  No one can know what will happen in the future.  Anyone who makes a prediction is giving an opinion.

Expert opinions carry weight, and correctly attributed, may be used in news stories.  The writer's opinion never belongs in a news story, whether it is hard news or a feature.  The writer's opinion is only allowed in an editorial, column or other explicitly opinion piece. 

Remember you are not writing for an advertising agency.

Students sometimes make the mistake of telling readers what to do or think.  That is not your job as a reporter.  Don't tell us to go out and give money to a worthy cause.  You can write about the worthy cause and tell readers how to give money.  Don't tell readers that you or everyone feels a certain way about the subject of your report.  Don't wish someone good luck or write you are sorry for the person's loss, or happy for the person's success.