Writing a news report

A reporter is a finder of newsworthy facts; a report must be lucid, easy to grasp and appealing. Accuracy comes first, then brevity. A report is called a 'story' because it is built from facts to hold interest — but every fact must be right.

News value depends on time and on authentic sources. News usually shows impact (often measured in numbers), proximity (local news before national and international), timeliness, prominence, novelty, conflict and relevance.

Structure: Kipling's six 'honest serving-men' — who, what, when, where, why, how — of which who and what matter most; and the inverted pyramid of lead, body and end, so readers can stop halfway and sub-editors can trim from the bottom.

The lead is usually one sentence of 20 to 30 words, about one point, putting the human drama first; the body extends it with quotes introduced by 'said/says', flowing logically; the end is neat. (The Hindi half allows a longer intro, up to 35 to 50 words.)

Style: simple language, active voice, 'after' to link stages and 'as' for events at the same time; avoid 'I', redundancy and jargon; check facts, names and spelling, and reread as a reader would. A glance at the past: Gandhiji's Indian Opinion and Navjivan, the Bombay Chronicle (1910), Sweden's Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (1645).