6: Checklist for writing a news story
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You won’t always need to fill out this checklist for your reporting, but it’s a useful way to understand the process of reporting a story and making sure you’re working efficiently.
Gather - What information do you already have about the topic, before you begin reporting? What questions do you have? (It’s OK if they are very basic.) How do you KNOW that this story will be useful to people?
Search - What information is available with a simple search? Where can you find it? How do you know that’s a good source?
Seek gaps - What information is not available through internet, library or archival searches, but is needed? Who can you contact to help you find that information?
Interview - Who can help you add information? (Remember your central journalism ethics, here: Your sources should not be people with whom you have a personal or financial relationship. If a story starts with that kind of source, they should be interviewed for background information that you subsequently verify through other sources, and as a starting point for your research, not as a primary source for your reporting.)
Sort - What do you have, and how does it go together? Do you have new questions? Have you answered those? (If not, go back a few steps.)
2. Organizing your thoughts
This is a place to jot down ideas and be messy before you begin to formally write your story. Use this worksheet to sketch out your ideas.
Impact: What is the most important information? Be ferocious about this: Why would people care about this story? (This is usually the answer to the question of “how will this affect people’s lives?”) Who gains? Who loses? Is there anything people can do to shift events? We are ONLY interested in stories that serve our audiences, not stuff that “should” matter. If you can’t concisely explain why it does matter, it’s probably not a story yet. (Sometimes what matters is: “People asked.”)
News element/news hook: What is changing/might change/has changed?
Context: What does this relate to? What else do people need to understand or know in order to appreciate this information? Is this happening anywhere else? Is this a single event or part of a larger sequence of events?
Human dimension: Who is affected by this? Can I talk to those people? (If you haven’t, go back and try.) What do they think and feel about this information?
In one sentence, how would you explain this story out loud, to a friend in one sentence or 30 seconds?
Who will care about this story? Why?
What else might people need to know?
3. Consult your editor/pitch
For classroom purposes, your “editor” might be your instructor, a classmate, or a friend. Make sure that person knows that their job is to stand in for your readers, and to make sure your story is interesting and useful to them.
Succinctly tell your editor what the story says -- this is your pitch!
Ask your editor to challenge your thinking. What have you missed?
Be prepared to defend your story AND to go back and do additional work to improve it.
4. Writing (finally!)
You’ve got a lede; now order a sequence in telling: organize.
Try telling the story out loud and make a note of the order in which you reveal information. Is that the best order, or would the story be more effective or engaging if you made some changes? Should you hold some info back to create a different mood, or to add a twist or some tension?)
Write quickly, staying on track – you can and should PLAN to go back and rewrite. Most good "writing" is actually thoughtful revision. First drafts are not the standard for professional work.
As you write, periodically ask yourself: Who cares?
As you write, periodically frighten yourself: The audience is leaving. How would you reorganize or cut in order to keep their interest?
When you finish, go back and ruthlessly revise: Does the story make sense? Is it worth reading? Does it flow in a logical way that the reader can understand?
Then revise it again, even more ruthlessly: Cut words and sentences.
Read your work out loud. Is it conversational? Are you writing in the way that you would tell the story over a dinner table? Are you using simple but precise words (e.g. “strolled (or dashed) over” vs. “went over”)?
Credit: This guide was adapted by Betsy O’Donovan from API’s Journalism Essentials section. Len Reed, environment and science team leader at The Oregonian, developed a system to help reporters handle unruly information. This checklist/worksheet adapts some of those ideas.