how to write news articles in english

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How to Write a News Article

Last Updated: April 26, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 2,202,650 times.

Writing a news article is different from writing other articles or informative pieces because news articles present information in a specific way. It's important to be able to convey all the relevant information in a limited word count and give the facts to your target audience concisely. Knowing how to write a news article can help a career in journalism , develop your writing skills and help you convey information clearly and concisely.

Things You Should Know

• Outline your article with all the facts and interview quotes you’ve gathered. Decide what your point of view on the topic is before you start writing.
• Your first sentence is the most important one—craft an attention-getter that clearly states the most important information.
• Proofread for accurate information, consistent style and tone, and proper formatting.

Sample Articles

Planning Your Article

• If you’ve ever written a research paper you understand the work that goes into learning about your topic. The first phase of writing a news article or editorial is pretty similar.
• Who - who was involved?
• What - what happened?
• Where - where did it happen?
• Why - why did it happen?
• When - when did it happen?
• How - how did it happen?

• 1) those that need to be included in the article.
• 2) those that are interesting but not vital.
• 3) those that are related but not important to the purpose of the article.
• This fact list will help prevent you from leaving out any relevant information about the topic or story, and will also help you write a clean, succinct article.
• Be as specific as possible when writing down all of these facts. You can always trim down unnecessary information later, but it’s easier to cut down than it is to have to beef up an article.
• It’s okay at this point to have holes in your information – if you don’t have a pertinent fact, write down the question and highlight it so you won’t forget to find it out
• Now that you have your facts, if your editor has not already assigned the type of article, decide what kind of article you’re writing. Ask yourself whether this is an opinion article, an unbiased and straightforward relaying of information, or something in between.

• If you’ve ever heard the term “burying the lead”, that is in reference to the structure of your article. [3] X Research source The “lead” is the first sentence of the article – the one you “lead” with. Not "burying the lead" simply means that you should not make your readers read several paragraphs before they get to the point of your article.
• Whatever forum you’re writing for, be it print or for the web, a lot of readers don’t make it to the end of the article. When writing a news article, you should focus on giving your readers what they want as soon as possible.
• Write above the fold. The fold comes from newspapers where there’s a crease because the page gets folded in half. If you look at a newspaper all the top stories are placed above the fold. The same goes for writing online. The virtual fold is the bottom of your screen before you have to scroll down. Put the best information at the top to engage your readers and encourage them to keep reading.

• Ask yourself the “5 W's” again, but this time in relation to your audience.
• Questions like what is the average age you are writing for, where is this audience, local or national, why is this audience reading your article, and what does your audience want out of your article will inform you on how to write.
• Once you know who you are writing for you can format an outline that will get the best information to the right audience as quickly as possible.

• Even if you are covering a popular story or topic that others are writing about, look for an angle that will make this one yours.
• Do you have a personal experience that relates to your topic? Maybe you know someone who is an expert that you can interview .

• People usually like to talk about personal experiences, especially if it will be featured somewhere, like your news article. Reach out through a phone call, email, or even social media and ask someone if you can interview them.
• When you do interview people you need to follow a few rules: identify yourself as a reporter. Keep an open mind . Stay objective. While you are encouraged to ask questions and listen to anecdotes, you are not there to judge.
• Record and write down important information from the interview, and be transparent with what you are doing and why you are doing this interview.

Writing Your News Article

• Your lead should be one sentence and should simply, but completely, state the topic of the article.
• Remember when you had to write essays for school? Your lead is like your thesis statement.
• Let your readers know what your news article is about, why it’s important, and what the rest of the article will contain.

• These details are important, because they are the focal point of the article that fully informs the reader.
• If you are writing an opinion piece , this is where you will state what your opinion is as well.

• This additional information helps round out the article and can help you transition to new points as you move along.
• If you have an opinion, this is where you will identify the opposing views and the people who hold them.
• A good news article will outline facts and information. A great news article will allow readers to engage on an emotional level.
• To engage your readers, you should provide enough information that anyone reading your news article can make an informed opinion, even if it contrasts with yours.
• This also applies to a news article where you the author don’t state your opinion but present it as an unbiased piece of information. Your readers should still be able to learn enough about your topic to form an opinion.

• Make sure your news article is complete and finished by giving it a good concluding sentence. This is often a restatement of the leading statement (thesis) or a statement indicating potential future developments relating to the article topic.
• Read other news articles for ideas on how to best accomplish this. Or, watch news stations or shows. See how a news anchor will wrap up a story and sign off, then try to emulate that.

Proofing Your Article

• Be sure to double check all the facts in your news article before you submit it, including names, dates, and contact information or addresses. Writing accurately is one of the best ways to establish yourself as a competent news article writer.

• If your news article is meant to convey direct facts, not the opinions of its writer, ensure you’ve kept your writing unbiased and objective. Avoid any language that is overly positive or negative or statements that could be construed as support or criticism.
• If your article is meant to be more in the style of interpretive journalism then check to make sure that you have given deep enough explanations of the larger story and offered multiple viewpoints throughout.

• When quoting someone, write down exactly what was said inside quotations and immediately cite the reference with the person’s proper title. Formal titles should be capitalized and appear before a person’s name. Ex: “Mayor John Smith”. [8] X Research source
• Always write out numbers one through nine, but use numerals for numbers 10 and up.
• When writing a news article, be sure to only include one space after a period, not two. [9] X Research source

• You shouldn’t submit any news article for publication without first letting someone take a look at it. An extra pair of eyes can double check your facts and the information to ensure that what you have written is accurate.
• If you are writing a news article for school or your own personal website, then have a friend take a look at it and give you notes. Sometimes you may get notes that you want to defend or don’t agree with it. But these should be listened to. Remember, with so many news articles getting published every minute you need to ensure that your widest possible audience can easily digest the information you have provided.

Expert Q&A

• Start with research and ask the “5. Asking these questions will help you create an outline and a narrative to your article. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 5 Not Helpful 0
• Interview people, and remember to be polite and honest about what you are writing. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1
• Put the most important information at the beginning of your article. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 4 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you'd like to learn more about writing an article, check out our in-depth interview with Gerald Posner .

• ↑ http://www.dailywritingtips.com/say-what/
• ↑ https://www.addthis.com/blog/2014/10/30/dont-bury-the-lead-when-you-write-content-strategy/#.VeQR-dNViko
• ↑ http://grammarist.com/usage/lead-lede/
• ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/writing/voices.html
• ↑ http://www.gonzo.org/articles/lit/esstwo.html
• ↑ http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/culture-and-media/s07-02-different-styles-and-models-of.html
• ↑ http://www.apstylebook.com/?ref=google&gclid=CMqM4qrb_a4CFUZN4AodwTZO1w
• ↑ http://business.tutsplus.com/articles/11-ap-style-guide-rules-that-are-easy-to-mess-up--fsw-27489
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/02/

About This Article

To write a news article, open with a strong leading sentence that states what the article is about and why it’s important. Try to answer the questions who, what, where, when, and why as early in the article as possible. Once you’ve given the reader the most important facts, you can include any additional information to help round out the article, such as opposing views or contact information. Finish with a strong concluding sentence, such as an invitation to learn more or a statement indicating future developments. For tips on researching your article, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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15 News Writing Rules for Beginning Journalism Students

The goal is to provide information clearly in common language

• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• M.S., Journalism, Columbia University
• B.A., Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gathering information for a news article is vitally important, of course, but so is writing the story. The best information, put together in an overly intricate construction using SAT words and dense writing, can be difficult to digest for readers looking for a quick news fix.

There are rules for news writing that result in a clear, direct presentation, providing information efficiently and accessibly to a variety of readers. Some of these rules conflict with what you might have learned in English Lit.

Here's a list of 15 rules for beginning news writers, based on the problems that crop most frequently:

Tips for News Writing

• Generally speaking, the lede , or introduction to the story, should be a single sentence of 35 to 45 words that summarizes the main points of the story, not a seven-sentence monstrosity that looks like it's out of a Jane Austen novel.
• The lede should summarize the story from start to finish. So if you're writing about a fire that destroyed a building and left 18 people homeless, that must be in the lede. Writing something like "A fire started in a building last night" doesn't have enough vital information.
• Paragraphs in news stories should generally be no more than one or two sentences each, not the seven or eight sentences you probably wrote for freshman English. Short paragraphs are easier to cut when editors are working on a tight deadline, and they look less imposing on the page.
• Sentences should be kept relatively short, and whenever possible use the subject-verb-object formula. Backward constructions are harder to read.
• Always cut unnecessary words. For example, "Firefighters arrived at the blaze and were able to put it out within about 30 minutes" can be shortened to "Firefighters doused the blaze in 30 minutes."
• Don't use complicated-sounding words when simpler ones will do. A laceration is a cut; a contusion is a bruise; an abrasion is a scrape. A news story should be understandable to everyone.
• Don't use the first-person "I" in news stories. 
• In Associated Press style, punctuation almost always goes inside quotation marks. Example: "We arrested the suspect," Detective John Jones said. (Note the placement of the comma.)
• News stories are generally written in the past tense.
• Avoid the use of too many adjectives. There's no need to write "the white-hot blaze" or "the brutal murder." We know fire is hot and that killing someone is generally pretty brutal. Those adjectives are unnecessary.
• Don't use phrases such as "thankfully, everyone escaped the fire unhurt." Obviously, it's good that people weren't hurt. Your readers can figure that out for themselves.
• Never inject your opinions into a hard-news story. Save your thoughts for a review or editorial.
• When you first refer to someone in a story, use the full name and job title if applicable. On all subsequent references, use just the last name. So it would be "Lt. Jane Jones" when you first mention her in your story, but after that, it would simply be "Jones." The only exception is if two people with the same last name are in your story, in which case you could use their full names. Reporters generally don't use honorifics such as "Mr." or "Mrs." in AP style. (A notable exception is The New York Times .)
• Don't repeat information.
• Don't summarize the story at the end by repeating what's already been said. Try to find information for the conclusion that advances the story. 
• Avoid the Common Mistakes That Beginning Reporters Make
• Learn to Write News Stories
• 10 News Writing Exercises for Journalism Students
• Six Tips for Writing News Stories That Will Grab a Reader
• 5 Key Ingredients for Great Feature Stories
• How to Avoid Burying the Lede of Your News Story
• 10 Important Steps for Producing a Quality News Story
• How to Write Feature Stories
• Use Verbs and Adjectives to Brighten up Your News Stories
• How to Write a News Article That's Effective
• The Great Chicago Fire of 1871
• Constructing News Stories with the Inverted Pyramid
• Writing a Lead or Lede to an Article
• These Are Frequently Used Journalism Terms You Need to Know
• Learn What a Feature Story Is
• How to Write a Personal Narrative

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• How to Write a Great Article in the Cambridge B2 First Exam

• Posted on 11/12/2019
• Categories: Blog
• Tags: B2 First , Cambridge Exams , Writing

Writing in your only language can be a challenge, but writing in another language can be a complete nightmare ! Where do you even begin?

If you are taking your Cambridge B2 First exam you’ll have to write two texts in an 80-minute period. In part 1 you must write an essay but in part 2 you will be able to choose between a number of options. This could be could be an email, a letter, a report, a review or an article.

Read more about the format of the Cambridge B2 First exam .

In this writing guide, we’ll focus on how to write an article for the Cambridge B2 First Writing paper – part 2. We’ll also share with you some tricks and tips for passing this part of the exam. You’ll learn how to plan your article, structure it, use rhetorical questions , exclamation marks – and lots more. By the end, you’ll have the confidence to write an amazing article in English!

What is an article and how do you write one for the B2 First?

You’ll find lots of examples of articles in magazines, newspapers and internet blogs. In these texts, writers share information, guides and opinions on specific topics. The idea is to write in a way that grabs the reader’s attention and keeps them interested until the very end.

In the Cambridge B2 First Writing Paper – part 2, you could be asked to write about a variety of topics. However, it’s often something you’ve recently learned to do or know a lot about. For example, the question might be about a concert you’ve been to recently, you favourite hobby or your hometown.

Here’s an example of a B2 First article question.

Now let’s look at how to get started!

How to write an article in three simple steps

You’ve got the question in front of you, so now it’s time to start writing your article, right?

Wrong! If you do that, you’ve missed an essential stage: planning.

You can compare writing an article to preparing your favourite meal. No good tortilla de patatas was ever made without carefully preparing the ingredients first. It’s exactly the same with your writing – only, you’ll need fewer onions. Time management is also important. You only have about 40 minutes total so you need to plan your time carefully.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Make a plan (10 minutes)

Think about the question.

Really focus on the question. Decide who your role model is. Is he or she a sporting hero you really admire? Or someone closer to home? It could be a family member that you look up to or a person in the community who’s done something amazing. Think about why they inspire you and make some notes on your ideas.

Think about the tone

Consider the best blogs you read on the internet. Are they relaxed and friendly? Or do they sound like boring school essays? The truth is most articles are quite conversational. They are somewhere between semi-formal and informal. They are often informative, whilst entertaining and engaging the reader. You can also try to add some humour in too!

Think about the structure

Structuring your article is key and there’s normally more than one way to do it. Decide which structure makes sense for the question. Try to keep it logical and include different ideas in different paragraphs.

Here’s an example structure:

• Paragraph 1 Introduction Start with a catchy opening line to hook the readers. Then introduce your role model.
• Paragraph 2 – Describe what makes them special Giving examples and developing your answer.
• Paragraph 3 – Why you chose them as your role model This should be like a conclusion and give the reader a lasting comment or a question to think about.

Note: For many articles four paragraphs will be more appropriate – it depends on the question you are given.

Linkers are a fantastic way to organise your ideas. Experiment with some of these in your next article:

For a start…

Not to mention…

On top of that…

*Remember, you don’t need headings or titles in the article it should read as one continuous piece of work.

Think about vocabulary

Brainstorming vocabulary is a great way to get your ideas flowing . What are some great words related to the topic? List some adjectives for being a good role model. Pick out some verbs related to motivation or any good nouns or collocations you think would work. Throw some phrasal verbs and idioms in there too!

Here’s an example for the question above:

Think about ways to personalise your writing

Articles tend to have a personal touch. You can be a lot more familiar with the reader addressing them personally with pronouns like ‘you’ and ‘I’. Give your own opinion and also use contractions. Here are some more ways to sound personal:

Have you ever wondered…?

I’m sure you can imagine…

Can you believe…?

I will never forget…

There’s nothing more amazing than…

If you ask me…

Step Two: Write it (25 minutes)

An interesting introduction is the key to a first-rate article. You want to capture your audience’s attention whilst making it clear what it’s going to be about. Start with an opening line that sets the tone of the topic. Try to catch the attention from the first word. Here’s an example:

Firefighters and superheroes are obvious role models. But sometimes the person that inspires us the most is so much closer to home. I have never had a favourite singer or sports star but my father has always been an important inspiration for me.

Next, think about the original question. What makes your role model special? Remember to keep it interesting and include some personal feelings. Use exclamation marks like this:

One of the things that makes my father so special is that he always does everything for his family, and he’s an excellent listener too. Whenever we have a problem he’s always there for us. Not to mention the fact that he’s also really fun-loving! If there’s a party, my dad is the first person on the dancefloor.

But only include one or two exclamation marks in the article or they’ll lose their impact.

Finally you want to tackle the last question. Why did you choose him as your role model? A great technique here would be to address your reader personally and even include a rhetorical question at the end. This gives them something to think about. A little bit like this:

I think my father is the best role model because he is the most hardworking person I know. He has a really difficult job as a doctor and is always saving lives. That’s so inspiring for me!

I really look up to him and he really pushes me to be the best I can be. Wouldn’t you want a role model like my dad?

Step Three: Check it (5 minutes)

Everything has come together and you’ve got your final article. Now you can sit back, relax and put your feet up until the examiner says stop. Wait, not quite!

You’re missing the last important step. Always check your writing. You’d hate for all your hard work to be wasted at the last moment. Here are some things to check for.

• You included everything in the question
• You’ve used a variety of sentence lengths
• The spelling is correct
• It’s personal and engaging
• You haven’t repeated the same vocabulary too often
• It’s not too formal

What are the examiners looking out for?

To get the very best results, you need to know what the examiners are looking out for when they are marking your writing.

These are the four most important things to consider:

Ask yourself these questions when checking your work and make any necessary changes before the time is up!

Any other advice for writing an article?

Read, read, read. Go online and search for blogs in English that interest you. If you love sports, look at the sports news. If you prefer fashion, find fashion articles. Whatever it is read real examples for real inspiration!

If you’re still not confident about writing in English, or you want some help preparing for the B2 First exam, take a look at our exam courses .

You can also check out our articles on how to write an Essay or a Review in the Cambridge B2 First.

Glossary for Language Learners

Find the following words in the article and then write down any new ones you didn’t know.

Nightmare (n): : a bad dream.

Rhetorical question (n): a question that doesn’t need to be answered, for dramatic effect.

Time management (n): the way to use your time effectively.

Look up to somebody (pv) : to admire someone.

Humour (n): something amusing or funny.

To hook (v): to attract and captivate your attention.

To flow (v): to move steadily and constantly.

First-rate (adj): excellent, top quality, well made or done.

An exclamation mark (n): this punctuation symbol: !.

To tackle (v): dealing with a challenge or something difficult.

To put your feet up (exp): to rest and relax.

pv = phrasal verb

adj = adjective

exp = expression

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How To Write a News Article (+4 Tools, Examples & Template)

November 6, 2019.

By Dmytro Spilka

By the late 1400s, the printing press had been perfected, and Germany began publishing pamphlets containing news content. Realising the power of printed news, several papers in London became popularised in the years following 1621.

Almost 400 years later, the transition from print to online has had a profound impact on the way we consume news and subsequently, how we create it. You’ve probably already noticed that the morning paper covers the news that was instantaneously delivered to your mobile device the night before.

The nature of online news reporting allows journalists to simultaneously watch an event unfold and update their readers in real-time. Both print and online news articles aim to discuss current or recent news in local happenings, politics, business, trade, technology and entertainment.

Typically, a news article on any topic and at any level will contain 5 vital components for success . This is what separates news-article writing from other forms of writing.

1. Headline

These 5-12 words should deliver the gist of the whole news. In most cases, it’s important not to play with words or to be too cryptic. A news article headline should be clear and succinct and tell the reader what the article is about. Should they find the topic interesting, they will probably read the article.

Whilst headlines should be clear and matter-of-fact, they should also be attention-grabbing and compelling. According to some sources, eight out of ten people will read headline copy and only two will continue to read the rest of the article (Campaign). So, if 80% of people are unlikely to ever make it past the headline, there is plenty of room to spend extra time in crafting the perfect headline for your news article.

This BBC headline definitely makes people give it a second look. At first glance, you probably noticed the words “Goat” and “Ronald Reagan” and wondered what on earth has brought this farm animal and 80s U.S. president to exist within the same sentence- let alone the same headline . Closer inspection lets the reader know that the article is about goats’ helping to save the Presidential library in the California fires. Most would want to know how, so they read on.

Put simply, this string of words tells people who wrote the article and is usually prefaced by the word ‘by’. This component really depends on the company you write for. Whilst most magazines and newspapers use bylines to identify journalists, some don’t. The Economist, for example, maintains a historical tradition where bylines are omitted and journalists remain anonymous. In such cases, the news article reflects the publication as a whole.

3. Lead paragraph

This is the section to get straight down to the facts and there is no time for introductions. A lead paragraph must be constructed to attract attention and maintain it. To do this, the basic news points and facts should be relayed without digressing into detail or explanation. Those are forthcoming in the next section of the article.

Included in the lead are what journalists refer to as the 5 Ws: Who, what, when, where and why. To some extent, by simply stating each W, some form of lead is automatically formed. For example; “ An off duty nurse and paramedic used a makeshift tourniquet to save the life of British tourist whose foot was bitten off by a shark in Australia on Tuesday”.

• Who – an off duty nurse and paramedic and a British tourist
• What – built a makeshift tourniquet
• When – Tuesday 29th October 2019 (article published Wednesday 30th October 2019)
• Where – Australia
• Why – to save the life of the British tourist

This should conclude your lead paragraph and have your readers engaged and interested to learn more about the news. Resist the temptation to include additional details about the event as they have no place here. Structure is everything and you wouldn’t want to mess up the flow of the overall piece.

4. Explanation/discussion

A good place to start when writing the paragraph that follows your lead is to jump into the shoes of your readers and think about what they might want to know next. What are the factors that seem obscure, or most fascinating and is there scope to delve into more explanatory detail to put it into the wider context?

To do this well, the writer must have access to the answers to these questions.

Expanding on the details of your 5 Ws is all about providing in-depth coverage on all the important aspects of your news. Here, you should reflect on your first-hand information. Add relevant background information that explores the wider context. In other words, consider whether this story has implications on anything else.

Include supporting evidence in this section. This can take the form of quotations from people involved or opinions of industry experts. Referring to credible sources in your news article will add value to the information you publish and help to validate your news.

Ensure that the use of your quotations add value and are informative. There is little use in providing a quote that doesn’t shed light on new information. If the point has been made clear in your lead paragraph – there is no need to repeat it here.

For example, “An off duty nurse saved the life of a British tourist’, said Police Chief John Adams.” This quote tells the reader what they already know as this is the information stated in the lead.

Rather, “It was a long way back to shore and if he continued to bleed that much all the way back I’m not sure he’d have made it” – said Emma Andersson, off duty nurse.’ The inclusion of this quote gives a deeper insight into the severity of the incident and adds value to the article.

5. Additional information

This space is reserved for information of less relevance. For example, if the news article is too long, get the main points down in the preceding paragraphs and then make a note of the trivial details. This part can also include information about similar events or facts that somewhat relate to the news story.

What makes a news article so powerful

The ultimate aim of a news article is to relay information in a specific way that is entertaining, informative, easily digestible and factual . For a news article to be effective, it should incorporate a range of writing strategies to help it along. It should be:

Active not passive

Writing in the active tense creates a more personal link between the copy and the reader. It’s more conversational and has been found to engage the audience more. It also requires fewer words, so shorter and snappier sentences can be formed.

For example “A British tourist’s life was saved by an off duty nurse” is longer and less colloquial than “An off duty nurse saved a British tourists’ life”. The latter is easily understood, more conversational and reads well.

Positive, not negative

Whilst it is true that certain publications might use language to swing the sentiment of their copy, news should give the reader the information they need to inform their own opinion . The best way to do this is to avoid being both negative or positive. A neutral tone reads well and draws attention to key issues.

It’s often more effective if your news article describes something that is actually happening rather than something that’s not. For example, rather than stating that “the government has decided not to introduce the planned tuition funding for university students this academic year” a more palatable account of the event would be “the government has abandoned plans to fund university tuition this academic year”.

Quote accurately

We now know that the use of quotations belongs in your explanatory paragraph. They validate what you’ve said and inject emotion and sentiment to your copy. But what makes a good quote? And how and when are they useful?

Writers should be able to differentiate between effective and ineffective quotes. They should also appreciate that a poorly selected quote placed in an inappropriate paragraph has the power to kill the article.

Consider who you are quoting. Is their opinion of interest to your readers? Quotes that are too long can grind on your reader’s attention. Especially if they are from bureaucrats, local politicians or generally just boring people with nothing significant to say. Rather, the shorter and snappier the quote, the better. Bald facts, personal experiences or professional opinions can add character and depth to the facts you’ve already laid out.

Direct quotes provide actuality. And Actuality provides your article with validation. Speeches and reports are a great source of quotes by people that matter to your story. Often such reports and transcripts can be long and tiresome documents. Great journalistic skill is to be able to find a usable quote and shorten it to make it more comprehensible. Second to this skill is to know precisely when the actual words used by a person should be quoted in full.

Remember, people ‘say’ things when they speak. They don’t “exclaim, interject, assert or opine”. Therefore, always use the word “said” when attributing a quote. For example, “three arrests were made on the scene” said PC Plum.

Sound use of adjectives

The golden rule here is that adjectives should not raise questions in the reader’s mind, rather they should answer them. Naturally, an adjective raises further questions. For example:

• ‘Tall’ – how tall?
• ‘Delightful’ – according to whom?
• ‘Massive’ – relative to what?

Unless followed by further information, adjectives can be subjective. However, this isn’t always bad. If they contribute to the relevance of the story, keep them. Just be sure to ponder each one as to whether they raise more questions in the reader’s mind.

Lastly, it’s always better to approach news-style writing directly and specifically. Use words like ‘gold, glitter, silver,’ instead of ‘bright and sparkly’. Being specific isn’t dull or boring. It allows readers’ to follow the article with a more accurate understanding of the news. Vagueness does not.

No Jargon or abbreviations

Those working in an organisation or specific industry will often take for granted the fact they’re surrounded by jargon. It’s a convenient and efficient way to communicate with those who also understand it. These terms become somewhat of a secret language that acts to exclude those on the outside. This must be assumed at all times when writing news. There’s no telling whether an article on a new medical breakthrough will be read solely by medical practitioners and scientists. In fact, it almost certainly won’t be.

If readers feel lost in your article or have to look elsewhere for explanations and definitions of acronyms and abbreviations, it’s unlikely they’ll return. The rule here is to avoid them or explain them.

Be cautious with puns and cliches

Over and over you hear them and rarely do they evoke any positive response; cliches have no place in your news article. Yet, as for puns, lots of headline writers find these neat little linguistic phrases irresistible.

The problem is, they can be just as exclusive as unrecognisable jargon. References to the past that are well received by readers over 55 years old, means risking a large portion of readers being left out.

Is there a tasteful and refined way to use puns, cliches or metaphors ? Yes, but one always bears the risk of some readers not understanding and abandoning the article altogether. Take the following example:

The Sun’s headline “Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious” echoing Liverpool’s earlier “Super Cally goes ballistic, QPR atrocious”.

In all fairness, both are great puns and will have had most readers humming the Mary Poppins anthem all afternoon. But to fully appreciate this play on words, it helps to know that ‘Cally’  is the former footballer, Ian Callaghan and ‘Caley’ is the team Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Those with no interest or knowledge of football would have been immediately excluded from this article. However, given the fact that the article was clearly aimed at football enthusiasts or at least, fans, the aim was never to produce an all-inclusive article in the first place.

Write in plain English (make it easily digestible)

Articles written in plain English are easy to digest. This is especially important what discussing complex or technological news. Most readers won’t have the time to decipher cryptic or overly elaborate writing styles whilst keeping up with the news story being told.

Clear and unambiguous language, without technical or complex terms, should be used throughout. As the amount of news we consume each day has increased with the internet, mobile devices and push notifications, it is important to keep things simple. We now have the pleasure and task of retaining more news than ever before. This is easier to do when the news we consume is clear, succinct and written in plain English.

Be timely and up to date

News gets old fast. Today’s news is tomorrow’s history. So, timeliness in the news industry is imperative to its success. Similarly to freshly baked goods – news should be served fresh. Once it’s old and stale, nobody’s interested in it. Don’t, however, take the risk of serving it before it’s ready.

There is great skill attached to being a timely journalist. Capabilities must range from gathering research in good time, to writing content at speed and editing accurately under pressure. There are a few things you can do to help stay on top of the latest affairs and find time to write.

First, a conscious effort to stay up to date with news on all levels is necessary. That is international affairs, governmental, regional and local levels. You should have a solid awareness of ongoing issues and debates across all mediums. For example, If there’ve been developments on ongoing peace treaties, you should be able to pick up the news story as it is – without the need to revise the entire story.

It’s likely that you’ll be under the pressure of several tight deadlines. Don’t just keep them in mind, write them down. Keeping a content calendar is an effective way to organise your time and make sure you’re hitting all deadlines accordingly. Whether it’s your phone calendar or an actual deadline diary, a visual representation of time can help you distribute tasks and stick to a schedule.

Always be available when a press release comes your way. If you’re not there to cover the story, someone else will. Organise a backup just in case you’re unavailable to make sure all necessary information reaches you in emergency situations. Having such a plan in place can save time when it comes to researching and writing news articles. The writing process becomes easier when all the material is at hand.

Make it entertaining

A good news article will entertain its readers. To do so, the article should contain some human interest. In general, it’s been found that people are interested in the lives of other people. An article that appeals to the voyeuristic part of human nature is immediately entertaining.

For example, a flood in an empty building doesn’t have nearly as much human interest as a flood in a building full of people and belongings. Sad, but true. Simply because we identify with each other, we are interested in reading about each other too.

If your story has an interesting or relatable person at the heart of it, it should fuel your article . Tug at the emotional strings of your readers and make a connection between them and your story. Look hard enough, and you’ll find human interest everywhere. Writing a business article about a new project manager with a passion for bringing tropical fruit flavours to toothpaste? There’s human interest here. We all use toothpaste – whilst some will be onboard with this idea, others will scoff and remain faithful to their dependable mint flavoured paste.

Prepare to tap into your inner literary comic. If the story you’re working on is funny, don’t hold back. Just as most journalists enjoy working on a story that hits their ‘quirky button’, most readers will be more inclined to read a story that plays on their humour strings.

Fact check everything

‘Fake news’ has become a familiar term, especially for journalists. Unverified facts and misleading claims have blurred the line between journalism and other content creation. It’s now more important than ever to fact check everything .

A good PR tip is to avoid a reputation disaster rather than repair one. You do not want to fall into the category of fake news. This might drive away potential returning readers and significantly reduce readership.

Using statistics, figures and facts are a great way to add validity and actuality to your article. They lend themselves to originality and make your article more credible when used correctly. Without checking the authenticity of these facts, you risk delivering an article that is grounded in fiction.

News article writing tools

To hit the nail on the head and deliver a news article that is well researched, well written and well-received; take advantage of some online writing tools to help you along the way.

1. Grammarly

This free and comprehensive writing tool is practically everything you need to craft grammatically correct and error-free copy. Not only does it check your spelling and grammar, but punctuation too. Grammarly uses context-specific algorithms that work across different platforms to help make your content flow seamlessly throughout.

2. Headline Analyzer

Analyse your headlines for free and determine the Emotional Marketing Value score (EMV score).  Headline analyzer analyses and scores your headlines based on the total number of EMV words it has. Headline Analyzer also tells you which emotion your headline most impacts, so you know whether you’re on the right track from the get-go. So, along with your score, you’ll find out which emotion your headline piques at, be it intellectual, empathetic or spiritual.

Writing for the web requires a distinctive set of skills than those required for print. The way readers use the online space and in particular, the search engines have changed the way they consume news. Ultimately, out of the millions of web pages, readers should be able to find yours.

Be mindful of the words you use in your article. Search engines assume that content that contains words or phrases that have or are likely to be searched by researchers, is more relevant content. As such, it bumps it up to higher-ranking positions.

You can easily find out which precise words have been in popular searches and which phrases you should incorporate into your article. Use Ahrefs Keywords Explorer tool to explore seed keywords, industry keywords, and generate keyword ideas.

You can also use Ahrefs Content Explorer to search for any keyword and get popular content that drives traffic.

4. Discussion forums

Online communities and discussion forums are a great source for journalists to broaden their network and keep up-to-date with the latest media news. Find useful tips and the latest news in the following groups:

• Journalists on Facebook, contains more than 1.3 million fans and over 9,000 journalists. It’s one of the most established journalism communities online. You’ll find inspiration and a place to find and discuss breaking news.
• LinkedIn for Journalists is a highly active community featuring a section dedicated to advice and discussion points for journalists. Take advantage of monthly free webinars that cover how to generate story leads, build sources and engage audiences.
• /r/journalism on Reddit, opens the door to nearly 10,000 members, posting questions, advice, interesting news stories and professional opinions on recent and breaking news. Not only is it a source of news stories, but also a place to find an extremely diverse mix of opinions and story angles.

A structural combination of the essential components of a news article , as noted in the first section of this post, will put you in the right direction. Once you have your framework – made up of a working headline, lead, preliminary explanation and additional notes – you can begin to pack it with all the elements that bring a news article to life.

Turn to Ahrefs and online communities for inspiration and make use of writing and editing tools like Grammarly for the entire process. This will save you time editing (crucial in the news media world) and improve the quality of your article to get it to the top of those SERPs.

Remember, there’s always a human interest, you just have to find it. It’s this element that will determine the level of engagement your article stimulates. Just keep in mind, most people are either interested in how a news story will affect their own lives or how another person’s life is being affected.

By the end of the process, you should have a news article that is in good shape and ready to entertain, educate, inspire or inform your readers. The last thing to do but certainly no less crucial is to fact check everything. A sub-editor can be handy when it comes to catching typos and picking up grammatical errors, but fact-checking is primarily down to the writer.

News Article FAQ

How long should a news article headline be?

Headlines that are between 5-12 words (up to 65 characters) are generally more effective.

How long should a news article be?

The word count is unlimited. It all depends on the nature of your news article. However, as a general rule, Google needs at least 300 words of content to grasp the context of the page.

How to cite a news article?

Generally, you would need to add the name of the source, the name of the author and a hyperlink to the original source.

How to fact check a claim, statement or statistics?

The claim, statement or statistics must be verifiable by a credible source. Context plays a massive role in fact-checking, hence, simply taking citing figures may not qualify as proper fact-checking.

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Q: Any examples?

Absolutely! Just take a look at our portfolio .

Q: Can you come up with topics?

Yes. If you don’t have a topic in mind, simply leave the “Title” field blank when placing your order. We’ll carry out an extensive keyword research, come up with topics and send them for your approval.

Q: Can I send you the brief/instructions?

Sure you can. Just upload your file when placing your order.

Q: What’s the turnaround time?

The standard turnaround is:

• 500 Words – 3-4 business days
• 1,000 Words – 3-4 business days
• 1,500 Words – 4-5 business days
• 2,000 Words – 5-7 business days
• 3,000-5,000 Words – 10-15 business days
• 5,000 Words – 15+ business days

Please Note: The turnaround time may depend on the complexity of your copy, and whether you provide the topics.

Q: Can I approve content?

Sure thing! The order isn’t complete until we have your final approval.

Q: Do you cover my industry?

We’re pretty certain we do unless you’re in gambling, adult, dating or pharma niche.

Q: What types of copy do you cover?

We cover everything from blog posts and articles to web copy and long-form tutorials.

Q: How many revisions do I get?

Unlimited! We’ll edit and amend the copy until you’re fully satisfied with the outcome.

Q: Can you post it for me?

Sure. If you have a WordPress website/blog, we’ll post the piece free of charge. Just give us the access.

Q: Are they optimised for search engines?

Yes! At the end of the day, SEO is what we do. Before producing a piece, we conduct an extensive keyword and competition research.

Q: Where can I use the piece?

Anywhere you like! It’s your copy and we won’t claim any rights. The only thing we may ask is your permission to use it in our portfolio 🙂

Q: What about refunds?

We can’t offer refunds because you’re paying for our time and process. However, we do realise the importance of issuing refunds if, for any reason, we fail to deliver the project.

All clear, let’s go

Q: What is DA (Domain Authority)?

Domain Authority is a metric introduced by Moz, which determines the strength and authority of the website. It’s based on a scale of 0-100 (100 being the strongest). Although it’s not an official identifier of how strong the website is, we use it to measure the authority of the site. We’re also happy to use Ahrefs’ DR.

Q: What keywords (anchor text) can you use? 

We do not accept over-promotional keywords (e.g. “Buy Ford Fiesta in Chelsea”) – these are way too intrusive and will be taken down by the editor. Although we do provide an option to insert your preferred anchor text, we may have to change it if necessary. Make sure to vary your anchor text and diversify your target pages.

Q: Are links NoFollow or DoFollow?

Whether the link is NoFollow or DoFollow will depend on the site’s guidelines. We focus on producing quality content and securing top-tier placements. Our goal is to provide value, strengthen your brand, increase your reach and get your website noticed.

Guest Blogging should never be done solely for link-building.

Q: How many links will you place?

We aim to include at least 1 natural, in-content link back to your website (not bio link). However, we usually manage to gain 2 or more links from a single piece of content. Make sure to vary your anchor text and diversify your target pages.

Q: What’s an average turnaround time? 

It usually takes 15-20 days to get 1-3 articles published. If you’re purchasing more than 3 articles, it will depend on your chosen package. When placing your order, our tool will tell you how long it will take 🙂

Q: Do you accept all websites?

Nope. We don’t work with sites in the following niches: gambling, dating, adult, pharmacy, firearms or anything illegal/unethical.

Q: Do charities get a discount?

Absolutely! We offer a 30% discount for charities and UK government organisation. Get in touch to check if you’re eligible.

Q: How long is each article?

The standard article is roughly 700 words. However, you can choose a different length (extra fees apply). In fact, if you’re ordering more than 3 articles, we’d suggest mixing up the length.

Q: What pages can you link to?

We suggest linking to pages that contain useful, relevant information (e.g. blog posts, research and white papers). We can’t link to direct sales pages. If unsure, drop us a line!

Q: How good is the content?

Just take a look at our portfolio. The content is of top-notch quality. We do not use PBNs or spammy blogs. All websites we outreach are genuine, real and have a large viewership.

Q: Can I edit/approve the content/links before publishing?

We do not allow approving or editing our articles. However, we’re happy to send you the content for your own record. This is because we know how content marketing works and use an individual approach when outreaching websites for placements, meaning that an article will never be about your brand/company. Articles are written for educational purpose where links to your website fit in naturally. Editing content or links can jeopardise this. Nevertheless, we can reassure you that our content is of very high quality.

Q: Who is going to be the author?

All articles are published under the name of one of our employees or are in a ghost-written format. However, if you’d like to be the author of the article, simply choose this option when placing your order (extra fees apply). It’s worth noting that if you choose to be the author, we’ll ask you to create a company email for us (e.g. [email protected]). We’ll also need an additional 10 days to complete your order.

Q: Will you publish on different websites?

Absolutely! If you’re ordering more than 1 placement, we’ll always post each article on a different website. For example, if you’re ordering 6 placements, you’ll get 6 different articles published on 6 different websites/blogs/publications.

Q: What if my article goes down?

We guarantee to replace or fix the article for 90-days after purchase. However, it almost never happens because our content is genuine, real and helpful.

Q: Is it safe?

Yep, quality content marketing and guest blogging are safe. It doesn’t mean that all guest blogging is safe because there’re plenty of low-quality services that offer cheap links. This isn’t one of them. It’s worth noting that you’re not buying links. You’re purchasing our expertise, time to research, outreach, write and publish quality content.

Q: Are you buying placements?

Nope. We do not buy placements or links.

Q: I’m not seeing immediate results, why?

Although content marketing is a great way to improve your organic rankings and traffic, it takes time and may not work in some cases.

Please Note:

1. We do NOT guarantee any results (negative or positive). We will NOT be held responsible for any misuse of this service, including (but not limited) to increases or decreases in search rankings, increases or decreases in search positions, increases or decreases in backlinks or website authority, keywords, traffic, manual or algorithmic penalties and any other indicators.

2. We will NOT be held responsible for any search engine penalties your website may receive if you don’t follow search engine’s guidelines, including (but not limited) to spammy comments, heavy and spammy linking from guest posts, spammy guest blogging, publishing poor quality content with a sole intent to gain backlinks, buying or exchanging backlinks, etc.

3. We will NOT be held responsible for any financial losses or gains you or your website may face as a result of guest blogging. Occasionally, search engines will drop listings for no apparent or predictable reason.

4. We DO NOT use spammy link building practices. Please do not ask.

Q: Can you get me top placements?

Absolutely! Just take a look at our portfolio.

Q: Can I choose the websites?

Nope. We do not allow choosing websites. This is because the process is 100% manual. We hand-pick websites that are relevant to your niche and then proceed to the outreach. We do not purchase placements, hence can’t and will not offer specific website placements.

Q: How is your service different?

We’re experienced SEOs and Content Marketers with 100s of high-quality placements in our portfolio. Many other providers offer links – we offer our expertise and quality content.

Beware, there’re many low-quality, spammy providers that abuse the system by publishing your content wherever the links are allowed. this is not what we do.

Q: What’s the process?

First, we start by identifying your niche and target audience, followed by prospecting and outreach. When placements are secured, we’ll produce and publish the content.

Q: I heard guest blogging is spammy?

Nope. Spammy guest blogging is spammy. Quality content marketing is an effective SEO practice.

1. Website Use

By using our website (https://solvid.co.uk and its subdomains) you agree to the terms and conditions listed below.

Our Subdomains:

• payments.solvid.co.uk
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2. About Us

Solvid is a trading name and a registered trademark of “Solvid and Heirs LTD”. Solvid and Heirs LTD is registered in England and Wales: 9697233. Registered Address: 6 St. Davids Square, London, England, E14 3WA. Email: [email protected]

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All information stored on our website belongs to “Solvi and Heirs LTD” and may not be copied or changed without our permission. Access to our website is permitted on a temporary basis, for both, clients and visitors. We may carry out development works and/or amendments at any time without prior notification. Therefore, access to our site may be restricted on a temporary or permanent basis.

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You may view and download information on our website, without our permission, for personal use. You must not republish, change and modify any information stored on our website without our written permission. You must not use any of our information for commercial or business purposes.

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Information published on our website is produced free of charge and therefore we carry no liability for information stored, in regards to its’ relevancy and accuracy. We take all steps to ensure that information published on our website is correct, however, we can not be held liable for any inaccuracies or relevance of the data.

We will not be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage arising under connection with our website. Nothing included ion this page shall exclude or limit our liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

6. Payments

We offer some services that require online payment. All payments are processed and secured by PayPal and Stripe. We store no payment information on our website. As an online ordering system, we use ARForms.

This website uses a secure SSL encryption.

Payments for our services must be made in full and upfront. However, for Website Design & Development service, we require a 50% upfront payment before starting the project. The other 50% must be paid when the project is completed but before the final handover. Our fees DO NOT include additional services such as domain name, hosting, email software, paid plugins and subscriptions.

All information that you provide in connection with a purchase or transaction must be accurate, complete, and current. Where you have failed to pay or where payments are overdue, we may suspend or terminate your order.

7. Services

We offer services that require online payments. Some of these are:

1. Search Engine Optimisation 2. Content Marketing 3. Website Design & Development 4. Copywriting 5. Website SEO Audits & Reviews 6. Paid Ads 7. Guest Blogging, Blogger Outreach, Link Building and Article Placements

Solvid uses reasonable efforts to provide these services to you; however, all services provided depend on innumerable factors and market variables that are outside of our direct control. For these reasons, all services offered are not guaranteed and are offered “as-is”. Where you decide to use any services offered by Solvid, you agree that we make no guarantees including but not limited to article placement, rankings, or any profits. You understand that the services offered may have variance, be inexact, cause negative effects, or be otherwise incorrect. An increase in search engine ranking, increase in business, or any other associated benefits are neither implied nor guaranteed. Website rankings or results may vary by region, search engine, or fluctuate based on factors outside of our control. Due to the nature of our services, you agree:

• We do NOT guarantee any results (negative or positive). We will NOT be held responsible for any increases or decreases in search rankings, increases or decreases in search positions, increases or decreases in backlinks, keywords, website authority, traffic fluctuations, manual or algorithmic penalties and any other indicators.
• We will NOT be held responsible for any search engine penalties your website may receive if you don’t follow search engine’s guidelines, including (but not limited) to spammy comments, heavy and spammy linking from guest posts, spammy guest blogging, publishing poor quality content with a sole intent to gain backlinks, buying or exchanging backlinks, etc.
• We will NOT be held responsible for any financial losses or gains you or your website may face.
• We will NOT be held responsible for any changes made to a user’s website that adversely affects the search engine rankings of the user’s website.
• Occasionally, search engines will drop listings for no apparent or predictable reason. We have no control over the policies of search engines with respect to the type of sites and/or content that they accept now or in the future and user may be excluded from any directory or search engine at any time at the sole discretion of the search engine or directory.
• We have NO control over any actions or inaction by any search engines related to a user’s website or a website’s ranking.
• We have NO control over website and blog owners removing links and content or deleting/moving/changing their website. These placements will not be refunded or replaced.
• Under no circumstances shall Solvid be liable to you (the end user) for any damages whatsoever, including (without limitation) any direct incidental or consequential damages, loss of profits, or any claims of yours or third party websites. You, the end user assume all risks and potential damages (known or unknown) associated with using our services.
• We reserve the right to tweak anchor text and other order details to ensure successful placements.
• Solvid is NOT responsible for changes made to the website by other parties that adversely affect the search engine rankings of the Client’s website.

You agree to release us from any liability that we may incur for providing you any services offered via Solvid. You agree that any service or any other information found on Solvid may be inaccurate, unsubstantiated or possibly even incorrect. You agree to release us from any liability that we may have to in relation to your use of our services.

We reserve the right to cancel any orders placed for websites in illegal or offensive industries. Any illegal content, products, services or items hateful, objectionable or defamatory content aimed at any people group, race, gender, sexual orientation or otherwise attacks on any person, business, organisation, product or service; cruelty towards animals; or otherwise content found to be objectionable will be cancelled and refunded.

We DO NOT work in gambling, adult and pharma industries.

We reserve the right to cancel any order if we think we won’t be able to fulfil it. In such cases, you’ll be refunded in full.

If you are unsure if your site violates our restrictions, please contact us.

• As you’re paying for our time and expertise, all fees are non-refundable. However, we do realise the importance of part or full refunds if we’re unable to fulfil your order. In such cases, we’ll analyse the work carried out and issue a refund accordingly. We can’t offer refunds on a basis of “unsatisfactory service”.
• All fees, services, documents, recommendations and reports are confidential.

9. Free WordPress Installation Service

We’re not able to offer refunds for this free WordPress installation service. As we’re not taking the payment from you, refunds cannot be processed. If you’re unsatisfied with your WordPress hosting provider, please contact them directly for help and refunds.

10. General Data Protection Regulation

As of 25th May 2018, the European Union will enact the General Data Protection Regulation. In effect, the regulation intends to give website users complete control of their personal information. This includes giving users the right to access any information website owners may hold about them. As well as the right to be forgotten, so that all personal information of the user that is held by the website owner, is deleted upon request of the user.

To request access to information you’ve submitted to this website, or to request the deletion of your information, please contact us via the form here.

11. Reports & Invoices

Soon after you place an order, you’ll receive an email with a PDF confirmation file that includes a summary of your order, invoice and terms. If you encounter any issues or wish to amend your details, please contact us after placing your order.

Every service comes with a report. At the end of every project, you’ll receive a comprehensive report that outlines the work outlined.

12. Affiliate Disclosure

As well as providing services, we are keen on educating our readers with the content we publish. Some of the links you see in our posts/guides/tutorials have affiliate links, meaning if you decide to purchase a product or sign-up for the service using our links, we get a commission (at no additional cost to you). We’ve published a lot of posts, and can’t keep track of every affiliate link. So, please assume that every link is affiliate before clicking away. Also, we do not recommend the tools & products we don’t admire, even if they offer decent commission rates.

13. Non Disclosure

We value your privacy! If you need us to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement, please feel free to email us at [email protected] before placing your order.

14. Privacy Policy & Cookie Policy

We value your privacy and understand your privacy concerns. Our  Privacy Policy  and  Cookie Policy  is incorporated into this Agreement, and it governs your access to and use of Solvid’s service. Please make sure that you review our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy thoroughly.

15. Taxes & VAT

Solvid is NOT currently registered for VAT (Value Added Tax). However, this may change in the near future. When (and if) this changes, an applicable VAT rate will be added on top of your order.

16. Pricing

We may change pricing at any time without giving prior notice. The change will only apply to the orders placed in the future.

17. Estimates

Please be aware that some of our services provided may list estimated dates and timelines for delivery or completion. Although we always attempt to deliver all services by the date provided, these estimates are merely good faith estimates and are non-binding in nature. We reserve the right to modify, alter, or extend any estimates at our discretion. We will not be held responsible or liable for any failure to provide any services before any estimated dates.

18. Disclaimer

SOLVID AND ALL SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS”, “AS AVAILABLE” AND “WITH ALL FAULTS” BASIS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, NEITHER SOLVID, NOR ANY OF OUR EMPLOYEES, MANAGERS, OFFICERS, ASSIGNS OR AGENTS MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OR ENDORSEMENTS OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO: (1) THE WEBSITE; (2) ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED VIA THE WEBSITE; (3) THE SERVICES, OR (4) SECURITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION TO SOLVID. IN ADDITION, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, LOST PROFITS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE, CUSTOM, TRADE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, SYSTEM INTEGRATION AND FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS.

SOLVID DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE INCLUDING THE SERVICES WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED; THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; OR THAT THE PLATFORM OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES THE PLATFORM AVAILABLE IS FREE FROM ANY HARMFUL COMPONENTS. SOLVID DOES NOT MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES THAT THE SERVICES OFFERED ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR USEFUL. SOLVID DOES NOT WARRANT THAT YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM IS LAWFUL IN ANY PARTICULAR JURISDICTION, AND SOLVID SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY SUCH WARRANTIES.

If you have any issues or questions, please contact us at [email protected]

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• Knowledge Base
• Citing sources
• How to Cite a Newspaper Article | MLA, APA & Chicago

How to Cite a Newspaper Article | MLA, APA & Chicago

Published on March 26, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 23, 2022.

To cite an article from a newspaper, you need an in-text citation and a reference listing the author, the publication date, the article’s title, the name of the newspaper, and a URL if it was accessed online.

Different citation styles present this information differently. The main styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago style .

You can explore the format for newspaper article citations in APA and MLA style using the the interactive example generator below.

Note that the format is slightly different when citing an interview published in a newspaper.

Table of contents

Citing a newspaper article in mla style, citing a newspaper article in apa style, citing a newspaper article in chicago style, frequently asked questions about citations.

An MLA Works Cited entry for a newspaper article lists the article title in quotation marks and the name of the newspaper in italics. A URL is listed at the end for an article consulted online.

The MLA in-text citation for an online newspaper article consists solely of the author’s last name.

If the article is from a local newspaper that could be confused with other similarly named publications, include a clarification in square brackets in the Works Cited entry.:

You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to create your newspaper citations.

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Citing a print article

When the article was consulted in print rather than online, the page number or range of the article is included instead of a URL.

If the article is spread across non-consecutive pages (e.g. begins on p. 1 then continues on p. 5), just write the first number followed by a plus sign (e.g. “pp. 1+”).

In the in-text citation, only specify a page number if the article appears on more than one page; otherwise, it’s unnecessary to do so.

In an APA Style newspaper article reference , the article title is in plain text with sentence-style capitalization, the name of the newspaper in italics with headline capitalization. Include a URL if the article was accessed online. The APA in-text citation omits the page number if unavailable.

You can also cite a newspaper article using our free APA Citation Generator . Search by URL to automatically generate an accurate citation.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

The Scribbr Citation Generator will automatically create a flawless APA citation

If you accessed the article in a print newspaper , the reference entry includes the page number(s) of the article instead of the URL. Newspaper page numbers are sometimes written with a combination of letters and numerals (e.g. D4); the letters should be retained.

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Chicago style recommends just citing newspaper articles in footnotes, omitting them from the bibliography in most cases.

However, if you need a bibliography entry for a newspaper article , list the article title in quotation marks and the name of the newspaper in italics. Include a URL at the end for online articles.

No page range is included in Chicago style, because articles are frequently split across non-consecutive pages. You also don’t include a page number in the Chicago footnote.

Chicago also presents guidelines for an alternative author-date citation style . Examples of newspaper citations in this style can be found here .

The elements included in a newspaper article citation across APA , MLA , and Chicago style are the author name, the article title, the publication date, the newspaper name, and the URL if the article was accessed online .

In APA and MLA, the page numbers of the article appear in place of the URL if the article was accessed in print. No page numbers are used in Chicago newspaper citations.

In APA , MLA , and Chicago style citations for sources that don’t list a specific author (e.g. many websites ), you can usually list the organization responsible for the source as the author.

If the organization is the same as the website or publisher, you shouldn’t repeat it twice in your reference:

• In APA and Chicago, omit the website or publisher name later in the reference.
• In MLA, omit the author element at the start of the reference, and cite the source title instead.

If there’s no appropriate organization to list as author, you will usually have to begin the citation and reference entry with the title of the source instead.

When you want to cite a specific passage in a source without page numbers (e.g. an e-book or website ), all the main citation styles recommend using an alternate locator in your in-text citation . You might use a heading or chapter number, e.g. (Smith, 2016, ch. 1)

In APA Style , you can count the paragraph numbers in a text to identify a location by paragraph number. MLA and Chicago recommend that you only use paragraph numbers if they’re explicitly marked in the text.

For audiovisual sources (e.g. videos ), all styles recommend using a timestamp to show a specific point in the video when relevant.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, August 23). How to Cite a Newspaper Article | MLA, APA & Chicago. Scribbr. Retrieved June 7, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/cite-a-newspaper-article/

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If you have a class filled with newshounds eager to write their own front-page stories about classroom events or the latest happenings in the cafeteria, Scholastic Teachables has you covered with ready-to-go resources for your young journalists.

These 5 resources will help students in grades 3–5 learn about the newswriting process and how to add descriptive elements that will engage readers. Not only will they learn how to write a news article, students will also learn important content-area vocabulary that gives new meaning to words like  dummy ,  bleeds , and  widow . Before you know it, your classroom will be a busy newsroom filled with young reporters looking to break the next big story!

1.     Newspaper Writing: Narrative Learning Center

This  narrative learning center  specifically designed for newspaper writing helps students report facts and write a compelling news story that will engage their readers. The printable includes an introductory lesson, student directions, model writing samples, graphic organizers, differentiation tips, and an assessment rubric.

2.     Newspaper Article: Leveled Graphic Organizers

This lesson with  tiered graphic organizers  will help your cub reporters and front-page newshounds learn the basics of news writing. Students will write a news article that opens with a lead, includes who, what, when, where, and why, and presents details in the body of the story.

3.     Newspaper Jargon: Grade 4 Vocabulary

To be true news writers, students need to know the industry jargon. This  vocabulary packet  teaches students what words like  bleeds ,  dummy , and  stringer  commonly mean in newsrooms.

4.     The Daily News: Language Arts Bulletin Board

This  bulletin board  resource not only turns your classroom into a newsroom, it also helps students develop the speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills they need to run it effectively. 

5.     Plenty of Plastic: Grade 5 Opinion Writing Lesson

Every respected newspaper has a robust editorial section. This  writing lesson  helps create persuasive opinion writers by encouraging students to take a written stance for or against plastic bags.

Scholastic Teachables helps teachers like you build the next generation of journalists and newshounds. Even better, these teaching materials are ready to go, saving you time when you need it most during the school year. The printables are free to subscribers of Scholastic Teachables or are available for individual purchase.  Log in or subscribe today  for teaching tools to help your students write news articles that can make a difference in your classroom, school, and community!

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Article Writing – Differences Between Essay and Article

Writing an article, differences between essay writing and article writing.

Article – It is a piece of writing usually intended for publication in a newspaper, magazine, or on the internet (blog)

Objectives of Article Writing

• Describe an experience, person, event, or place
• Present an unbiased opinion on a topic with a balanced argument –Example
• Video games – Boon or Bane
• Compare and contrast-It is usually between two situations/scenarios /two particular areas. Example – Football Vs. Cricket sport –Changing trends
• Provide information about a problem. Offer suggestions to solve an issue/ a problem. Example -Conservation of wildlife

Three W’s -Starting Point

• What – Objective of the article
• Where – Medium used – Newspaper/Magazine/Website
• Who – Intended readers – specific groups such as students, teenagers, or adults

Language (to be used in article)– Formal, semi-formal, or informal as per the intended readers. Informal is usually used in blogs (online). Formal in school magazines and semi-formal in magazines and newspapers mostly.

Length – Lengthy for magazine articles: 4-6 paragraphs

Newspaper and online blog articles are concise with a less number of paragraphs. Depending on the topic -3-5 paragraphs

Format (Structure) of Writing An Article

• Heading Or Title
• Catchy to draw the attention of the readers
• Not more than five to six words
• Main theme/topic of the article to be stated in an attractive manner.

Tips To Write Catchy Headings

• Use numbers
• Appealing adjectives to connect emotionally with readers

Effortless, Fun, Incredible, Essential, Absolute

• Clear indication to what readers will gain

Reasons, Principles, Facts, Lessons, Ideas, Ways

• Use trigger words – Why, How, When

Example – If a topic is ‘bathing dogs at home’- ‘Why I love Bathing Dogs’/ 10 Unbelievable Ways of Bathing Dogs

• By line –Comes below the title. By line states the name of the writer. It can be written, not mandatorily.
• Introduction – First Paragraph
• Begin with proverb/ phrase or a quote related to the topic/main theme to make it interesting
• Reader comprehends the main theme
• Core of the topic – What, where, and when about the topic should be included in the introductory paragraph

Example – Natural calamities – What, where it occurs, and when can be introduced

• Body –Second/ Third/Fourth Paragraphs
• Engage readers with details – Why and how of the topic. Add facts and reports.
• Readers relate to the magnitude of the topic/ problem.
• Argument points – Agreement and disagreement
• Conclusion – Last Paragraph
• Give suggestions to solve the problem
• Show the change or progression toward the solution
• Conclude with a thought provoking statement/quote directing towards the future.

Steps to Be Followed for Article Writing

• Remember 3 Ws
• Select a topic
• Research the topic- It should be from credential sources –websites/ journals/ newspapers . Facts need to be presented. Data- percentage or ratio
• Write the article as per the standard format
• Edit the article for any errors- Punctuation and Grammar
• Proofread the article to recheck and review.
• Add images and infographics related to the topic. Infographic – Visual representation of data through graphs, pie-chart, etc.

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Find Information Using Research Skills

Find Information- Research Skills Research skills will be foundational to many decisions that you will make. You must evaluate the validity and reliability of the information that you access, be it from the internet, books, or from individuals. When it comes to the internet, it becomes easier to research. We can be bombarded with information. […]

Adjectives: Types and Their Usage

Adjectives are words/words that are used to describe nouns or pronouns. The adjective also asks the following questions: What kind? Which one? How many? How much? Types Of Adjectives Descriptive adjectives Quantitative adjectives Proper adjectives Demonstrative adjectives Possessive adjectives Interrogative adjectives Indefinite adjectives Descriptive Adjectives A word that defines a noun/pronoun is called a descriptive […]

Main Idea of a Paragraph

The main idea of a text is the author’s message about the topic. It is often expressed directly, or it can be implied. If the main idea is expressed directly: The main idea is found at the beginning of paragraphs, usually as a topic sentence. The main idea can also be found in the concluding […]

Restrictive and Unrestrictive Elements with Examples

Restrictive and Unrestrictive Elements A restrictive element introduces details necessary to the meaning of the sentence. A non-restrictive element can be removed without affecting the purpose. Non-restrictive clauses are typically separated from the independent clause by commas, whereas restrictive clauses don’t need to be punctuated. A sentence may have restrictive or non-restrictive elements, depending on […]

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LEARN 3000 WORDS with NEWS IN LEVELS

News in Levels is designed to teach you 3000 words in English. Please follow the instructions below.

How to improve your English with News in Levels: 

• Do the test at Test Languages .
• Go to your level. Go to Level 1 if you know 1-1000 words. Go to Level 2 if you know 1000-2000 words. Go to Level 3 if you know 2000-3000 words.

• Read two news articles every day.
• Read the news articles from the day before and check if you remember all new words.

• Listen to the news from today and read the text at the same time.
• Listen to the news from today without reading the text.

• Answer the question under today’s news and write the answer in the comments.

• Choose one person from the Skype section .
• Talk with this person. You can answer questions from  Speak in Levels .

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Test your English Level.

It is only  3 minutes ..

• Article Writing

Article Writing Format: Explore How To Write, Example Topics and Tips

Have some great ideas, opinions and suggestions you wish you could share so that it could reach readers all around the world? One of the best ways to get your thoughts across the globe is by writing an article. There are techniques you can use to write the different types of articles. This piece on article writing will give you all the tips and tricks you need to master before you start writing your article.

Table of Contents

The art of writing an article, how do i write a good article – tips and techniques, article writing samples, faqs on article writing.

An article is a piece of writing which explicates ideas, thoughts, facts, suggestions and/or recommendations based on a particular topic. There are different kinds of articles, namely:

• Expository article – The most common type of article which allows the writer to put out information on any particular topic without the influence of their opinions.
• Argumentative article – An article in which an author poses a problem or an issue, renders a solution to the proposed problem and provides arguments to justify why their suggestions/solutions are good.
• Narrative article – An article in which the author has to narrate mostly in the form of a story.
• Descriptive article – An article written with the aim of providing a vivid description that would allow the readers to visualise whatever is being described. Using the right adjectives / adjective phrases is what will help you write a descriptive article.
• Persuasive article – An article aimed at persuading or convincing the readers to accept an idea or a point of view.

Writing an article takes a lot of effort on the side of the writer. Content writers/creators, bloggers, freelance writers and copywriters are people who have mastered the art of article writing, without which they would not be able to make their mark as a writer of any kind.

In order to be able to write an article that makes sense in the first place, you have to keep a few things in mind.

• The first and foremost thing that you have to take care of when you are sitting down to write your article is to check if you are well aware of the topic you are going to write on.
• The second thing that you have to ask yourself is why you are writing the article.
• The next thing that you have to focus on is the kind of audience you are writing the article for because unless you know your audience, you will not be able to write it in a way that makes them want to read it.
• The language you use is very important because, without the right spelling, correct grammar , punctuation and sensible sentence structure , the article would not be able to sell itself.
• Use keywords so that you get a good number of reading audiences.
• Maintain coherence within and between paragraphs.
• Double-check the data and information you provide, irrespective of the type of article.
• Keep the title and description as short and catchy as possible.
• Edit and proofread before it is published.

To help you understand better and practise the art of article writing, read through the articles given below:

Can I write a good article?

If you know all the information about the topic you are going to write about, a good hand over the language, a knack to keep it simple and interesting throughout, you can write a good article.

What is the format of an article?

The article should have a title/heading and a description that states what the article is about. The body of the article can be split into 3 to 5 paragraphs according to the volume of content with respect to the topic you are discussing. You can have subheadings and use bullet points wherever possible. Make sure your introduction makes people want to read the whole article and your conclusion leaves them satisfied.

How many paragraphs should there be in an article?

An article should have a minimum of 3 to 4 paragraphs. The writer is, however, given the choice to present the content in more than four paragraphs, if it would be better for the article.

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Cynthia Weil, Who Put Words to That ‘Lovin’ Feeling,’ Dies at 82

With her husband and songwriting partner, Barry Mann, she wrote lyrics for timeless hits by the Righteous Brothers, the Animals and Dolly Parton.

By Alex Williams

Cynthia Weil, who with her writing partner and husband, Barry Mann, formed one of the most potent songwriting teams of the 1960s and beyond, churning out enduring hits like the Drifters’ “On Broadway” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’,” signature tunes of the baby boomer era, died on Thursday at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 82.

Her death was confirmed on Friday by her daughter Jenn Mann, who did not specify a cause.

“​​We lost the beautiful, brilliant lyricist Cynthia Weil Mann,” the chart-topping singer and songwriter Carole King wrote in a statement posted on social media.

Recounting the friendship and rivalry that she and her former husband and songwriting partner, Gerry Goffin, shared with Ms. Weil and Mr. Mann (a friendship memorialized in Broadway’s “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” from 2014), Ms. King added, “The four of us were close, caring friends despite our fierce competition to write the next hit for an artist with a No. 1 song.”

Ms. Weil and Mr. Mann, who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, notched their first hit — “Bless You,” recorded by Tony Orlando — in 1961, two years after the music supposedly died with the Iowa air crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, known as the Big Bopper.

In fact, the pop and rock explosion of the 1960s was just beginning, thanks in no small part to key contributions from songwriters like themselves, Burt Bacharach , Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and Ms. King, who were part of the star-studded songwriting community centered on the Brill Building , the storied hit factory on Broadway and 49th Street in Manhattan.

Ms. Weil and her husband toiled two blocks away, in fact, at 1650 Broadway. It was a humble setting in which to create musical masterpieces.

“There were, like, three or four writing rooms there, and each room had an upright piano and an ashtray, because everybody smoked like crazy back then,” Mr. Mann said in a telephone interview on Friday. “Even though it was sparse, we worked and worked, and,” he added with considerable understatement, “some good things came out of there.”

Those good things included two soaring, almost sepulchral No. 1 singles for the Righteous Brothers: “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’,” from 1964, which in 1999 the music licensing agency BMI ranked as the most played song on radio and television of the 20th century, and “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration,” from 1966.

Another potential hit written for the Righteous Brothers, “ We Gotta Get Out of this Place ” (1965), ended up in the hands of Eric Burdon’s band, the Animals, who added some grit to it that helped it become an anthem for battle-weary soldiers in the Vietnam War. (“In this dirty old part of the city,” Ms. Weil’s lyrics began, “Where the sun refused to shine, people tell me there ain’t no use in tryin’).

Whatever the style or genre, Ms. Weil supplied a trademark touch of poetry and wit. In her statement, Ms. King said her favorite Weil lyric is in the song “Just a Little Lovin’ (Early in the Mornin’),” recorded by Dusty Springfield in 1968: “Just a little lovin’ early in the mornin’ beats a cup of coffee for startin’ off the day.”

While many of their songs became emblems of the 1960s, Ms. Weil’s lyrical success continued well after the mud of Woodstock had dried.

In 1977, Dolly Parton hit No. 1 on the Billboard country chart and No. 3 on the pop chart with the Weil-Mann song “Here You Come Again.” (The song brought Ms. Parton a Grammy Award for best female country vocal performance.) In 1980, the Pointer Sisters hit No. 3 on the pop charts with “He’s So Shy,” which Ms. Weil wrote with Tom Snow.

“There’s no reason a person shouldn’t write better 20 years after they start,” she said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times in 1986. “Writers know more and have more life experience to draw on.”

Which is not to say that she found it easy to stay on top in the music business. “You kind of have to sit through the trends,” she continued. “Live through bubble gum and disco and everything else we’ve lived through. You’ve got to be a creative survivor.”

Ms. Weil was born on Oct. 18, 1940, in New York City, the younger of two children of Morris Weil, who owned a furniture company, and Dorothy (Mendez) Weil.

Growing up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and later on the Upper East Side, she trained as an actress and dancer and dreamed of a life in theater, a subject she later majored in at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y.

“I was always fixated on Broadway ,” she said in a 2016 video interview with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “I wanted to write for Broadway, I had always pictured myself doing something on Broadway.”

She channeled those youthful longings into the lyrics for “On Broadway,” which she originally wrote from the point of view of a small-town girl dreaming of a future on the Great White Way — a dream that, the lyrics acknowledged, often comes with dashed hopes:

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway

They say there’s always magic in the air

But when you’re walking down the street

And you ain’t had enough to eat

The glitter rubs right off and you’re nowhere

Ms. Weil eventually changed the song’s protagonist to a male for the Drifters ’ version, which charted No. 9 as a single in 1962. Sixteen years later, George Benson lodged his own jazz-inflected version at No. 7.

In addition to her husband and daughter, Dr. Mann, a psychologist, she is survived by two granddaughters.

Despite her Broadway ambitions, Ms. Weil’s career took a different turn in 1960, when she met Mr. Mann, who had already co-written a couple of Top 40 hits, including one he recorded himself in 1961, the doo-wop sendup “Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp Bomp Bomp),” which he wrote with Mr. Goffin.

It was Ms. Weil who first noticed the man with whom she would craft a career and life. As her daughter recalled by phone, her mother had asked Don Kirshner , the Brill Building power broker music publisher, to find her a writing partner, hoping it would be Mr. Mann. She “thought he was really hot,” Dr. Mann said.

Instead, Mr. Kirshner set up a meeting with a different up-and-coming songwriter. On the day of that meeting, Ms. Weil “was sitting and waiting,” Mr. Mann recalled, “and in walks Carole King. She thought, ‘Oh, what a drag, I don’t want to have to write with that chick.’”

He added, “It worked out fine for both of them.”

An earlier version of this obituary misstated the given name of the songwriter with whom Ms. Weil wrote “He’s So Shy." He is Tom Snow, not Tony Snow.

How we handle corrections

Alex Williams is a reporter in the Obituaries department. @ AlexwilliamsNYC

Why I Don't Translate Non-English Words in My Writing

M y novel The Great Reclamation had been out for a little over a month when I received the email. The woman said she was German and had lived in Singapore for a few years. She wrote that she thought my book was “wonderful,” but she “had some small points to nag about.” Like anyone who puts their words out publicly in the world, I am accustomed to unsolicited commentary; people have quibbles about endings and characters, typos and perceived inaccuracies. For the most part, these criticisms are minor annoyances that are outnumbered by lovely, thoughtful messages from appreciative readers. But I’d noticed a new kind of note lately, one that echoed comments I’d received from strangers at readings or even well-meaning acquaintances who’d read my book. The email from the German woman summed it up: “Really why no glossary?” She went on to say that she doubted anyone who hadn’t lived in Singapore would know the word “aiyo,” know what a kampong is, or be able to picture a cheongsam.

It’s a question I myself grappled with in writing The Great Reclamation . It’s the story of a boy growing up in 1940s coastal Singapore, living through the tumultuous 20 years as Singapore struggles to gain independence from British colonialism. Writing in English about British-colonized Singapore —where I am from, and where speaking ‘good English’ is a significant class marker—is a fraught act in itself, highlighting the ways in which my own life and personhood has been shaped by imperialist historical forces. And it has been even more relevant in writing this novel, which traces how the colonial legacy inflicts a violence both overt and invisible upon the Singaporeans who inherit it. So I chose to write in an English I recognized, one containing the words that Singaporeans would use to refer to things. Words like kampong (Malay for village), cheongsam (Cantonese for the form-fitting dress also known as qi pao in Mandarin), and Jipunlang (Japanese people in Hokkien). Characters in my novel speak in Singlish, with its unique syntax, rhythms, and vocabulary arising from the intermingling of English with different languages in Singapore, including Malay, Cantonese, Tamil, and Hokkien. I chose not to italicize, translate, or gloss, not wanting to position the language and world of my Singaporean characters as something foreign, something othered, that needed to be made legible for the white Western reader.

Such questions—about glossaries, in-text translations, italicizations—are really questions about implied audience. And while I, like any writer, hope for my novel to be read by a wide cross-section of people, my implied audience is Singaporean. That doesn’t mean non-Singaporean readers are excluded. For isn’t it one of the great joys of reading to encounter and appreciate literature that’s not explicitly written for you? How tedious it would be otherwise.

Read More: 8 Ways to Read More Books—And Why You Should

The demand for a glossary betrays the entitlement of someone accustomed to a world in which they are always the implied audience. Someone unused to having to look things up themselves, to infer based on context, or to simply sit with the discomfort of not fully understanding something, as the rest of us do. Growing up in Singapore, I spent most of my childhood reading British novels about girls who went to boarding school and ate crumpets—totally foreign concepts which I could not picture but understood well enough within the context of narrative. Decades later, when I found out what a crumpet really was, it was disappointing—a bit of bread could never live up to that delightfully melodious word.

I remain inspired by writers throughout history who have resisted glossing in all its forms. In his introduction to the 40th anniversary edition of Midnight’s Children , Salman Rushdie examines his quest “to write in an English that wasn’t owned by the English.” He explains: “The flexibility of the English language has allowed it to become naturalized in many different countries, and Indian English is its own thing by now, just as Irish English is, or West Indian English, or Australian English, or the many variations of American English.”

Read More: Salman Rushdie Is Recovering, Reflecting, and Writing About the Attack on His Life

Indeed, I remember vividly the experience of reading Midnight’s Children as a 14-year-old girl in Singapore, the electricity of encountering its dynamic cadence, an English that evoked a rich linguistic environment, that, despite being very different from Singaporean English, felt familiar in the multitudes it contained. Other formative influences: Zora Neale Hurston’s uncompromising rendering of vernacular in Their Eyes Were Watching God ; Edwidge Danticat’s representation of 1960s Haiti in The Dew Breaker and Min Jin Lee’s of colonial Korea in Pachinko , neither of which offer anthropological explanation but instead present each world as it is lived by their characters.

We encounter the unfamiliar in all kinds of fiction, from historical epics to sci-fi to small-town Iowa realism. Yet there remains a particular insistence on maximum legibility when it comes to books set in worlds that aren’t white, aren’t Western, aren’t lived in “standard” English. The desire to know more, to understand more, may seem harmless to those who demand glossaries. But in centering themselves as the primary audience, this desire reveals itself to be a colonizing impulse, an owning impulse.

A novel is neither an anthropological textbook nor a travel article, written to educate or explicate. It is art, and like all art, it asks to be taken on its own terms. Perhaps, before speaking up to demand glossaries, footnotes, or translations, we could first try to listen.

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I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped

Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV. There are sound environmental reasons not to jump just yet

E lectric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles. I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms: fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.

As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be largely based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are nearly 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they are estimated to last only upwards of 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of effort is going into finding something better. New, so-called solid-state batteries are being developed that should charge more quickly and could be about a third of the weight of the current ones – but they are years away from being on sale, by which time, of course, we will have made millions of overweight electric cars with rapidly obsolescing batteries. Hydrogen is emerging as an interesting alternative fuel, even though we are slow in developing a truly “green” way of manufacturing it. It can be used in one of two ways. It can power a hydrogen fuel cell (essentially, a kind of battery); the car manufacturer Toyota has poured a lot of money into the development of these. Such a system weighs half of an equivalent lithium-ion battery and a car can be refuelled with hydrogen at a filling station as fast as with petrol.

If the lithium-ion battery is an imperfect device for electric cars, concerns have been raised over their use in heavy trucks for long distance haulage because of the weight; an alternative is to inject hydrogen into a new kind of piston engine. JCB, the company that makes yellow diggers, has made huge strides with hydrogen engines and hopes to put them into production in the next couple of years . If hydrogen wins the race to power trucks – and as a result every filling station stocks it – it could be a popular and accessible choice for cars.

But let’s zoom out even further and consider the whole life cycle of an automobile. The biggest problem we need to address in society’s relationship with the car is the “fast fashion” sales culture that has been the commercial template of the car industry for decades. Currently, on average we keep our new cars for only three years before selling them on, driven mainly by the ubiquitous three-year leasing model. This seems an outrageously profligate use of the world’s natural resources when you consider what great condition a three-year-old car is in. When I was a child, any car that was five years old was a bucket of rust and halfway through the gate of the scrapyard. Not any longer. You can now make a car for £15,000 that, with tender loving care, will last for 30 years. It’s sobering to think that if the first owners of new cars just kept them for five years, on average, instead of the current three, then car production and the CO 2 emissions associated with it, would be vastly reduced . Yet we’d be enjoying the same mobility, just driving slightly older cars.

We need also to acknowledge what a great asset we have in the cars that currently exist (there are nearly 1.5bn of them worldwide). In terms of manufacture, these cars have paid their environmental dues and, although it is sensible to reduce our reliance on them, it would seem right to look carefully at ways of retaining them while lowering their polluting effect. Fairly obviously, we could use them less. As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible. A sensible thing to do would be to speed up the development of synthetic fuel, which is already being used in motor racing; it’s a product based on two simple notions: one, the environmental problem with a petrol engine is the petrol, not the engine and, two, there’s nothing in a barrel of oil that can’t be replicated by other means. Formula One is going to use synthetic fuel from 2026 . There are many interpretations of the idea but the German car company Porsche is developing a fuel in Chile using wind to power a process whose main ingredients are water and carbon dioxide . With more development, it should be usable in all petrol-engine cars, rendering their use virtually CO 2 -neutral.

Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing: we’re realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we’re going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created. We should keep developing hydrogen, as well as synthetic fuels to save the scrapping of older cars which still have so much to give, while simultaneously promoting a quite different business model for the car industry, in which we keep our new vehicles for longer, acknowledging their amazing but overlooked longevity.

Friends with an environmental conscience often ask me, as a car person, whether they should buy an electric car. I tend to say that if their car is an old diesel and they do a lot of city centre motoring, they should consider a change. But otherwise, hold fire for now. Electric propulsion will be of real, global environmental benefit one day, but that day has yet to dawn.

This article was amended on 5 June 2023 to describe lithium-ion batteries as lasting “upwards of 10 years”, rather than “about 10 years”; and to clarify that the figures released by Volvo claimed that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are “nearly 70% higher”, not “70% higher”. It was further amended on 7 June 2023 to remove an incorrect reference to the production of lithium-ion batteries needing “many rare earth metals”; to clarify that a reference to “trucks” should instead have been to “heavy trucks for long distance haulage”; and to more accurately refer to the use of such batteries in these trucks as being a “concern”, due to weight issues, rather than a “non-starter”.

Rowan Atkinson is an actor, comedian and writer

• Electric, hybrid and low-emission cars
• Fossil fuels
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• Greenhouse gas emissions

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The Worst Sentence in the History of Political Journalism

Feast your eyes upon this little number, about Casey DeSantis.

In situations like this, I extend blame first to the editors above. Somebody thought this was worth some of the country's toniest journalistic real estate. Other somebodies agreed. So a reporter was sent out to pursue this upper echelon wet dream. Now, the reporter could have ducked the assignment, but she is fashion director and chief fashion critic of The New York Times , so this is what she does for a living. She also could have come back and said that all her experience on the beat led her to conclude that there's no damn story here and, hey, it's almost Fashion Week in London. But, again, that would imply that a person with considerable expertise in the field was questioning the judgment of the editor who had this brilliant idea, and, my dear people, that simply... is...not...done.

Which means that so, too, is what Mr. DeSantis himself called in his recent book, “ The Courage to Be Free ,” the “Ron and Casey traveling road show,” a Camelot-meets-Mar-a-Lago by way of Disney series that is now going national.

I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. I mean, I'm clear on the Camelot-meets-Mar-a-Lago bit, about which more anon. But attaching the DeSantis name to any connection with Disney makes me wonder if the reporter has been attending Fashion Week on Neptune for the past two years. I fully expect to see an ugly, angry walrus named Ronnie as the villain in a Disney full-length animation hit movie before the decade is out.

But it's the "Camelot-meets-Mar-A-Lago" business that sends this sentence sailing to the top of the worst. I guess we're all going to have to get used to Casey DeSantis, the wife of the candidate and, if some cynical Florida observers are correct, the brains of the operation, much in the way Angela Lansbury steered James Gregory in The Manchurian Candidate. The Daily Beast's Katie Baker has a nifty report on Team DeSantis and its first trip to Iowa in which Casey plays a very large role. Apparently, she decided now would be a good time to produce a bold fashion statement.

The First Lady of Florida showed up on the campaign trail in Iowa this weekend wearing a ghastly black leather jacket —American flag on front, an alligator and the silhouette of her state on the back, with the sneering words, “Where Woke Goes to Die”—that brought to mind nothing so much as the racks of a Red State big-bin store where it would be retailing for $24.99. To be fair, Casey DeSantis wore the bomber to a charity biker rally and I’m sure the campaign intended it to be a viral moment, like Melania Trump’s infamous “ I Really Don’t Care ” coat that the former First Lady donned to check out the border crisis.

Baker goes on to somehow divine a more serious political and philosophical meaning in Melania's coat than can be found in Casey's, which I find a little bit weird, but OK, if we're judging candidate's wives by their taste in jackets, I guess we can plumb the depths of that, shoetop-shallow as they may be. But Camelot and Mar-a-Lago? Jacqueline Kennedy and Casey DeSantis? Have we all gone completely bananas? Now, I've read enough, and talked to enough people, to know that the Camelot myth was in many ways a front, but Jacqueline Kennedy's sense of style and grace was not.

She was a beautiful, educated woman of surpassing taste and elegance. Not only would she never wear something as tacky as DeSantis' jacket, she would be equally revolted by the crudity of its message. This was a woman who not only was widely read, but also who, after her White House days had ended so brutally, edited books by Bill Moyers, and by Joseph Campbell, Dorothy West's last novel, and the first one in Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mafhouz, the Egyptian author who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1988. Ron DeSantis, with the help of his wife, is running the most singularly anti-intellectual presidential campaign since the Know Nothings. To compare the Kennedy White House with the Trump White House is bad enough, but to imply that the DeSantis campaign is somehow a blend of the two is theater-criticism journalism gone utterly, barking mad.

In related news, Maureen Dowd wrote a nice column about Jackie Kennedy's days as the "Inquiring Camera Girl" for the Washington Times-Herald. (I was charmed by the vision of the future first lady waiting outside the Washington Senators clubhouse to work the players into her column — and by the fact that she permanently appropriated her roguish old man's convertible.) Things were going on elegiacally until the inevitable appearance of Dowd's beloved Irish cop pappy. Author, author!

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America , and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children. 

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Phi Beta Kappa recognizes excellence in creativity and research among faculty members, students

June 7, 2023

A path-breaking book on the aftermath of the Vietnam War, a musical composition to honor the earth, a slim volume of love poems, and an essay exploring magic in Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" all were recognized recently for achievements in creativity and research by the Virginia Tech chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society.

Sturm Award for Excellence in Performance and Creative Arts

The Mu of Virginia Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa offered Sturm Awards for Excellence in Creative Arts or Performance to Dwight Bigler, associate professor and director of choral activities in the  School of Performing Arts  in the  College of Architecture, Arts, and Design , and Sophia Terazawa, visiting assistant professor of  English  in the  College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences .

At the April 2022 premiere of " Mosaic for Earth ," Bigler’s rousing work for choir and orchestra, 250 musicians thronged the stage in the Moss Arts Center to offer up an emotional plea for better stewardship of our world. Bigler’s composition draws on texts by acclaimed environmental writers and poets, including Terry Tempest Williams and N. Scott Momaday, to celebrate the wonders of nature and explore humanity's impact on and responsibility for the environment.  

In " Anon ," published by Deep Vellum in 2023, Terazawa offers up a collection of love poems about an adverb. A poet and performer of Vietnamese-Japanese descent, Terazawa infuses her work with shimmering images and names — gibbons, langurs, the river Ljubljanica, Quan  Am — and repetitions of “anon,” or soon: “Later, soon, Anon, how do I write to you, an adverb?”

For Jeffrey Loeffert, director and professor in the School of Performing Arts and chair of the selection committee for the Sturm Award for Excellence in Performing and Creative Arts, the works by both Bigler and Terazawa “are representative of high-impact scholarship that can be recognized by the general public but with a level of sophistication that is admired by experts in the field.

“Dwight Bigler's environmental oratorio for choir and orchestra, 'Mosaic for Earth,' and Sophia Terazawa's collection of poems, 'Anon,' display the full breadth of creative scholarship among our faculty at Virginia Tech,” Loeffert said. “'Mosaic for Earth' is impressive in scope and stunningly gorgeous, and 'Anon' showcases an exquisite command of language.”

Sturm Award for Excellence in Research

Amanda Demmer, assistant professor in the  Department of History  in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, was honored with a Sturm Award for Faculty Excellence in Research for her book " After Saigon’s Fall: Refugees and US–Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000 ," published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. Demmer examines how the normalization of American relations with Vietnam after the Vietnam War hinged on a mutual humanitarian interest in aiding refugees. Other historians have called "After Saigon’s Fall" compelling, comprehensive, and consequential in its contributions to thinking about the Vietnam War and, more broadly, how American wars end.

The book stood out among a field of strong competitors for the Sturm Award because it combined “not only really good scholarship, but very accessible writing,” said Peter Potter, publishing director for the  University Libraries  and chair of the selection committee. “Even though the book examines a historical subject, it still has a great deal of relevance today. The fact that this is her first book is just extraordinary for the amount of research that went into it.”

John D. Wilson Essay Contest Award

Given annually to recognize excellence in undergraduate writing, the 2023 John D. Wilson Essay Contest prize for best analytical or interpretive composition was awarded to Stephanie Sheets, who graduated this spring with degrees in English, creative writing, and professional and technical writing, for her scholarly essay “Shakespeare’s Soft Rejection of Magic in The Tempest as Informed by Elemental Discussion and the Learned Magician Figure in Agrippa’s The Philosophy of Natural Magic.”

Evan Lavender-Smith, assistant professor of creative writing, lauded the essay’s nuanced analysis and persuasive views. “With precision and elegance, Stephanie examines the character of Prospero, decoding his role as the convergence point of wild and learned magic,” he said. “This essay stands as a testament to the intellectual rigor and analytical depth that the John D. Wilson Phi Beta Kappa Essay Contest seeks to promote.”

Winners of the Wilson Essay Contest and the Sturm Awards are presented with cash prizes at the Phi Beta Kappa spring initiation ceremony. Nominations are accepted in the spring of each year.  Learn more about the awards .

Written by Melody Warnick

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