Your story can be about anything, but it must be something people will want to read. If you are going to write about a national issue, think about how you can bring in a local or school angle, perhaps by interviewing someone. Read the local newspaper, and ask your friends and family for ideas.
You could write:
- a book, movie, theatre, music, game or TV review
- a match report
- a profile of someone you know with a story to tell
- an introduction to a sport or pastime you care about
- a travel story about a place you have visited
- a guide to places to visit in Harrogate
- a day in the Life of…
- an update of a local or national story?
- about getting to school – bus, train, cycling etc
- about home Life: pocket money, chores, baby sitting, sleepovers etc
- a profile of an upcoming event
- a quiz, horoscope or produce and editorial cartoon (a cartoon about an issue)
- up an interview you carry out of a member of the community
- about students in the News
- about students who have different lives and cultures – religions, countries etc
- about My dangerous life – living on the edge
- a short story or poem
- about an investigation you have carried out into an issue you care about
Your story can be as long as you want but quality is more important than quantity. Most online stories are around 300 to 500 words long and include an image.
Tips: when writing your story put the most important information first, so if your reader stops reading they will know what the story was about. This is the inverted pyramid approach to news writing. Write your headline so that everyone knows what the story will be about. Think about how you can make your friends want to read your story – try a new or interesting angle.
The picture of the inverted pyramid and the related article below, were both identified and inserted by using Zemanta. Watch the video on Getting Started to learn how to use it. The writing news guidance below is from Galway’s (Ireland) student newspaper.
Related articles
- Writing news (sinnewspaper.wordpress.com)
