1、Unit 10 ConnectionsWriting Workshop A News ReportWarming-upYou are going to write a news report on a school or community event.Discuss these questions with your partner.1.What event would you like to write about?2.What aspects are you going to include?3.How is a news report normally organised?Warmin
2、g-up1.What event would you like to write about?sports meetingHistory Play FestivalEnglish Drama WeekTeachers Day celebrationguessing lantern riddles at Lantern Festivalschool tripNew Years Eve gala2.What aspects are you going to include?who are involvedwhy the event is heldwhere the event is heldwhe
3、n the event is heldhow the event is heldwhat exactly happensWarming-upWarming-upTips:When writing a news report,its important to concentrate on four elements facts,context,impact,and emotion.How you combine these four elements will determine the success of your news story.3.How is a news report norm
4、ally organised?Warming-upFacts:First,you can hardly call it a news story without the facts.Otherwise,it quickly becomes an opinion piece or a lifestyle article.Not only does the public expect facts over opinions,but they also expect the journalist to follow sound fact-checking procedures.The facts a
5、nswer the 5Ws(and H):who,what,where,when,why,and how.A journalist has a responsibility to make sure the facts are accurate and reasonably complete.If you have to write a report before you get all the facts,then say so in the report.Warming-upContextIn news writing,context answers the question,“Why s
6、hould I care?”or,“Why should I read this?”But,from the perspective of the news writer,context helps you decide what the audience needs to know.The American Press Institute cites context as a nice way to gain new readers through an entry point they can relate to.Context provides the circumstances sur
7、rounding the facts of the news story.Warming-upImpactImpact touches on the“why we should care”theme too.News writing is,indeed,an art form.Once you take something off the official wire,you have to weave it into a story people will connect with.Impact keeps readers in tune beyond the headline and the
8、 lead,or opening sentence.What are the ramifications or potential consequences of this news story?How will this series of events affect me and my loved ones?Warming-upEmotionThe American Press Institute says emotion commands attention and fosters a communal feeling.Evoking emotion is the magic of ne
9、ws reporting.Writers must walk the fine line between cold,hard facts and a tug on emotional heartstrings.But you must let the readers decide for themselves.For example,the American Press Institute points out you must not dictate the audiences feelings by writing,“In a shocking,new development”Rather
10、,you should let them choose to be shocked on their own.Reading 1.What event is the report about?The first Community Street Festival.2.When and where did the event happen?On 21 September on Redwood Street.3.Who attended the event and what did they do?Over 10,000 people from over 20 communities.There
11、were a variety of acts,most of which were singing and dancing.4.What did the event bring to the community?The festival gave great pleasure to a large number of people and it brought together the different communities within our city.Read the news report and answer the questions.Reading LeadBodyRound
12、-upPara.1 _Para.2 _ Para.3 _Para.4 _The news report has four paragraphs.Label each paragraph with a function.LeadBodyRound-upBodyReading Lead:highly successful;rather good,well receivedBody:popular;highlight;well organized;enjoyedRound-up:gave great pleasure to;“we are eager to participate in next y
13、ears festival.”Write down all the expressions that convey the fact that the event was a success.WritingSentence BuilderAdverbs of DegreehighlyThe festival was highly successful ratherThe performers were rather good mainlyPeople attending the event were mainly families.particularlyThe acts appealing
14、to children were particularly popular.Write 2-3 sentences about the event you are going to report.Use the Sentence Builder to help you.WritingTips for Better Writing In news writing,always follow the inverted pyramid.That is,place the most pressing facts at the start of the article and close with th
15、e least compelling elements.Avoid long or complicated words.A news story isnt the place to impress people with your intelligence or command of the English language.Choose short sentences over lengthy sentences that require many forms of punctuation.Follow a simple subject-verb-object form.Dont use t
16、oo many commas.Writing Each paragraph should introduce a new idea and,like sentences,be short and to the point.Consider dropping in a few transition words,where appropriate.Never use more than two prepositional phrases.These are phrases like,“According to the national weather forecast”Remember that
17、the core objective of a great news report is to convey the fact in a compelling and easy-to-understand manner.Get to the point and use shorter sentences.WritingThe lead,or the first few sentences,needs to be strong enough to grab the readers attention and make them want to read more.If its a hard ne
18、ws story,which is breaking or up-to-the-minute news,then include as many facts as you can in the summary of the story.If its a soft news story,like a human interest story or background information,then you can place the facts in the body of the story.Leads tell the reader what the story is about and
19、 why its important.Beyond that,it tells the reader why they should read the whole story.Think of it from the perspective of telling a friend about the latest news.Write a good lead.Writing A common error in leads happens when it focuses on more than one main idea.When this happens,the reader cant be
20、 sure what the story is about.Avoid burying the lead(also written as“bury the lead”).This refers to when you fail to emphasize the most important or most interesting part of the story,starting out with secondary information first.By its nature,the lead is meant to lure readers in.If a reader loses i
21、nterest after the first paragraph,because you buried the lead in the second or third paragraph,they may not ever get to why this story should matter to them.Leads will exclude certain readers if theyre full of jargon.Make sure the news report is suitable for everyone to read.WritingExamples of Good
22、Leads1.“On the second floor of an old Bavarian palace in Munich,Germany,theres a library with high ceilings,a distinctly bookish smell and one of the worlds most extensive collections of Latin texts.About 20 researchers from all over the world work in small offices around the room.”Byrd Pinkerton,NP
23、R2.“A Center City school teacher got enough kisses today to last-well,maybe not a lifetime,but a few weeks,anyway.Mary Saint Clair kissed 110 men at the annual fund-raiser for the local zoo.At ten bucks a kiss,she raised eleven hundred dollars for the zoo.When she turned the money over to zoo offici
24、als,she joked that all the animals were not behind bars.”School Video News3.“The million to one shot came in.Hell froze over.A month of Sundays hit the calendar.Don Larsen today pitched a no-hit,no run,no man reach first game in a World Series.”Shirley Povich,Washington PostWritingLeadBodyRound-upCo
25、mplete the outline of your news report.WritingWriting a News ReportIts important to:have an attractive title and a brief lead;include the who,when,where,what,why and how of the event;use formal and clear language.Use your outline and the Writing Help to write your first draft.Writingq Does the report have a clear title and a brief lead?q Does the report clearly introduce the events?(Including the who,when,where,what,why and how of the events)q Does the writer use formal and clear language?Edit your report in pairs.Assignment Polish your news report.Goodbye!
