No matter what news value or interest a story may have, it must conform to a particular format or style. In literary writing, style is generally determined by the author. It is obvious, however, that a literary writer is not concerned with news style or the fundamentals of news writing. Take the following quotation for example:

"It is a thing well known to both American and English whale ships, and as well a thing placed upon authoratative record years ago by Scoresby, that some whales have been captured far north in the Pacific, in whose bodies have been found the barbs of harpoons darted in the Greenland Seas. Nor is it too be gainsaid that in some of these instances two assaults could not have exceeded very many days. Hence, by inference, it has been believed by some whalemen, that the North West Passage, so long a problem to men, was not a problem to the whale. " Perhaps this quotation is familiar to you. It is from Moby Dick. Its author, Herman Melville, was known for his moving literary style. If a modem-day journalist were writing this same piece for a newspaper, it would probably read like this:

"The North West passage, long sought by man, may be known and used by whales. American and British Sailors have reported finding the barbs of harpoons from Greenland in the bodies of whales killed in the North Pacific. In some cases the wounds were only a few days old. This has led some whalers to believe that whales must use some shortcut from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. "

As you can see from the above example, in news writing all the frills are stripped away. The story is written so it can be understood by all readers. The purpose of the news story is to inform-not to impress. Short stories or novels and other forms of literature are usually written in chronological order. This means the author starts at the beginning, sets the time and place, describes the scene, introduces the characters, then slowly weaves and threads the plot until a climax is reached. The climax is deliberately held back to build suspense and to dramatize the events that hold the reader's interest to the end. In fast-moving society, few people have the time or desire to read every word of every story. Therefore, in modem news writing, the story is constructed so the climax is presented first. With this method of writing, the most important facts are placed in the first paragraph of the story. It then moves into the detailed portion of the story by covering the facts in diminishing order of importance. Before attempting to put words on paper, a good writer must be particularly conscious of the elements of journalism: accuracy, application, brevity, clarity, coherence, emphasis, objectivity, and unity. These are the characteristics of a story that provide the credibility that is so highly valued by professional newspeople.

WRITTEN LANGUAGE

The written language consists of three basic elements: words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Words

Words are your basic writing tools. Like any skilled technician, you must be able to select the best tools for the job. This means you should use words that say exactly what you mean; otherwise, people may take statements out of context. Use common words that are easy to understand. Multisyllable words add confusion Strong, active verbs inject life, action, and movement into stories. Strong verbs help to eliminate the need for adverbs. In news and feature stories, adverbs often clutter the writing.

Sentences

The simple declarative sentence consists of a subject and verb, or subject, verb, and object. It is the most common sentence in informal conversation and thus should be used for writing news items. Ideally, sentences should consist of 30 words or less and average about 15 to 18 words. Sentences should vary in length; for example, use an 8-word sentence, then a 12-word sentence, followed by a 25-word sentence, and back to a short sentence. Do not crowd too many details into one sentence. Although a compound or complex sentence may contain more than one thought, you should attempt to construct simple sentences that express a single thought clearly and concisely.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs should be reasonably short. People can grasp a small amount of information more easily than complex amounts of information. When possible, a paragraph in a news or feature story should be 60 words or less. Two or three sentences per paragraph are about right, but it is perfectly acceptable to have one-sentence paragraphs or even a one-word paragraph that expresses a complete thought.