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10 April 2008

Telling the Story

News stories are a collection of facts, observations, quotes and details

(The following article is taken from the U.S. Department of State publication, Handbook of Independent Journalism.)

Telling the Story
By Deborah Potter

All news stories are made up of facts, observations, quotations, and details.  Reporters almost always have more than they can use, and because they’ve worked hard to collect all of that information, their natural impulse is to use as much of it as possible in their stories. But cramming in all the facts that will fit rarely results in a well-told story that will engage the audience.  It is harder to understand stories that are overstuffed with information.  A reporter who tries to explain everything may succeed only in confusing the audience.  Besides, newspapers have only so much space; radio and television news programs only so much airtime; and readers, listeners, and viewers only so much spare time and attention to devote to catching up on the news.

Good journalism involves selection, not compression.  Reporters must use their news judgment to decide what is most important to include in a story and in what order to put it.  For many reporters, the most difficult part of telling a story is deciding what to leave out. One way to make those decisions is to choose a central point or a theme for the story, also called a focus.

Focus

The focus of a story is basically the answer to the question, “What is this story really about?”  To determine the focus, Poynter Institute writing instructor Chip Scanlan suggests asking five additional questions:

• What’s the news?
• What’s the story?
• What’s the image?
• How can I tell it in six words?
• So what?

Imagine that you’re covering a fast-moving wildfire. You’ve been out talking to people and observing the damage all day.  Now, you need to focus your story before you begin writing.  Here’s how you might use Scanlan’s questions to find your focus:

• What’s the news? – A fire destroyed two houses in the mountains east of the city, but no one was injured and the city business district was spared.

• What’s the story? – Two families are homeless but grateful to be alive.

• What’s the image? – Family members hug each other near the smoking ruins of their house.

• How can I tell it in six words or less? – Fire destroys homes but not spirits.

• So what? – Property damage from a dangerous fire was limited.

The reporter writing this story now knows that his lead will be about the families who lost their homes; that he’ll use a quote high up in the story from a family member expressing gratitude that everyone survived; and that he’ll also include general information about property damage.  The reporter knows that he can leave out some of the information he collected about the number of fire companies that responded in the business district, but he still might include a quote from the fire chief.

The results of this focus exercise are not meant to suggest that every story has only one acceptable focus.  On the contrary, reporters for different news organizations may take the same basic facts and write their stories quite differently because they have decided on a different focus.  In the case of the wildfire story, a reporter could use the same five questions to come up with a different focus.

• What’s the news? – Businesses in our city escaped damage from a wildfire that destroyed two houses in the mountains east of downtown.

• What’s the story? – Business owners grateful the fire spared them this time.

• What’s the image? – A business owner shakes hands with a firefighter outside his store.

• How can I tell it in six words? – Fire can’t stop business.

• So what? – Economic impact of a dangerous fire was limited.

This version of the story would lead with the relief of business owners, and use a quote high up from one businessman whose store was spared.  Both stories would include the same basic information – that two houses were destroyed while businesses were unaffected – but their emphasis would be different.  Knowing what to emphasize before beginning to write helps the reporter decide what facts and quotes to include and what to leave out.  As William Zinsser notes in his book On Writing Well, “Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.”

Experienced reporters don’t wait until the end of the day, after they’ve done all their research, interviews, and observation, before seeking a focus for their story.  They may actually start the reporting process with a focus in mind, which helps them decide where to go and whom to interview.  Of course, the focus can change as they collect more information, and it often does.  The most important thing is for the reporter to have decided on a focus for the story before sitting down to write.

Having a focus in mind is just the first step in planning to write a story.  The second is to organize the story so you know what information goes where.  Begin by listing the basic facts of the story and decide what should be at the top, at the end, and in the middle.  Select the best quotes or sound bites from your interviews, and decide where they should go in the story.  Make note of any details you want to be sure to include.  Before they begin to write, some reporters find it useful to create an outline on paper, that they use as a kind of road map for the story.

Writing

Good news writing is concise, clear, and accurate.  That sounds simple enough, but it’s actually quite challenging.  As we’ve already mentioned, reporters have a tendency to want to include everything they have learned in their stories.  But stories that get to the point are more likely to appeal to busy news consumers, and a news organization that lets stories run on won’t have much space or time left to cover other news.

Generally speaking, news stories have shorter sentences and paragraphs than most other types of writing.  Each paragraph contains one main idea.  A new paragraph begins when a new idea, character, or setting is introduced.

Journalists use simple, direct language that is easy to understand, with more nouns and verbs than adjectives and adverbs.  Well-written news stories are not vague, ambiguous, or repetitious, because every word counts.  As E.B. White notes in his classic book, The Elements of Style, one of the basic rules of writing is simply this: “Omit needless words.”

Good writers always make an effort to choose the most appropriate word to convey what they mean.  As the 19^th-century American writer Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” Reporters routinely consult dictionaries and reference books to make sure the words they choose really mean what they think they do.

Because they write stories for a general audience, journalists also try to avoid jargon – specialized language or technical terms unfamiliar to most people.  A hospital spokesman might describe a person as suffering from “lacerations and contusions,” but a reporter should use simpler terms: “cuts and bruises.”  If a technical term must be used for accuracy, it’s a good idea to include a definition as well.  For example, the term “fossil fuels” in a story about global energy issues should include a short list of what those fuels are: coal, oil, and natural gas.  Journalists also must steer clear of euphemisms – words or phrases that may confuse or mislead the audience.  If the city council votes to approve “a new interment facility,” the story on the radio or in the next day’s newspaper should tell residents that the city “plans to build a new cemetery.”

One key principle of news writing is to show the audience what happened rather than just telling them about it.  For example, instead of saying that family members attending a funeral were grief-stricken, a well-written news story would show their grief by describing how they hugged each other and sobbed.  Instead of just telling the reader that a person is tall, a good writer would mention that he has to stoop to enter the front door.

Accuracy is critically important in news writing.  An accurate story gets the basics right: grammar, spelling, punctuation, dates, addresses, numbers, and all the other details that go into a news story.  Getting someone’s name or age wrong is the kind of error that can erode a journalist’s credibility.  An accurate story also tells a complete story, not just one side or another.  That doesn’t mean that any single story should include everything there is to say about a topic, but it does mean that reporters must not leave out key information that could distort the story’s meaning.  For example, writing that a new test makes it easier to detect oral cancer suggests that the old test was unreliable.  If the new test is merely faster, the reporter should say so.  We’ll talk at greater length about accuracy in Chapter 4, “Editing the Story.”

Leads

The beginning of a news story is known as the lead.  It is meant to capture attention and to draw the reader, listener, or viewer into the story. There are two basic types of leads: hard and soft.  A hard lead summarizes the essential facts of the story – the five Ws and H discussed in Chapter 2, “Getting the Story” – while a soft lead may set the scene or introduce a character.  Another way to look at the difference between these types of leads is to consider a hard lead the answer to the question, “What’s the news?” and a soft lead the answer to the question, “What’s the story?”

Either type of lead can be used for a hard-news story.  For example, a story about the election of a new prime minister could be written one of several different ways.  A hard lead might read like this:

Former rebel leader Joshua Smith was elected prime minister tonight, winning more than 80 percent of the vote in the country’s first democratic election since 1993.

A soft lead would take a different approach:

Growing up in Youngtown, Joshua Smith was a little boy with big dreams.  Always small for his age, he says the bigger boys at school bullied him.  When he told his grammar school teacher he’d be prime minister some day, she laughed.

No one is laughing now.  Smith won yesterday’s election with more than 80 percent of the vote, becoming the country’s first democratically elected leader since 1993.

As you can see, a hard lead tends to be shorter than a soft lead – often only one sentence long.  While soft leads can be longer, every sentence in the lead supports the main point of the story. And both leads include the most newsworthy elements of the story.

Choosing the right kind of lead depends on many factors, including the importance and timing of the story and the type of news organization, publication, or broadcast involved.  Wire services, online-news sites, and radio newscasts that thrive on immediacy generally use hard leads.  A weekly news program or magazine is more likely to use a soft lead, on the assumption that most of the audience already would know the central facts of the story.

The most common type of soft lead is the anecdotal lead, similar to the example used in the prime minister story.  An anecdote is, by definition, a brief tale; when used as a lead it illustrates or foreshadows the larger story.  A story about a social trend might begin with several related anecdotes or examples.  On rare occasions, a quotation or a question may be the best way to begin a story.  All of these leads also can be described as “delayed” leads, because the reader has to wait for several sentences to find out what the story is really about.

Story Structure

All stories have a structure in the same way that people have a spine, or, at least, they should!  Without a structure, stories would be a jumble of facts with nothing to hold them together.  Structure is essential for stories to be understandable and meaningful, but not all stories should be structured in the same way.  Good writers choose the most suitable shape for the story they are telling.

Many news stories begin with the most newsworthy information, following a traditional story structure developed more than 100 years ago.  The “inverted pyramid” form puts the most important information at the top, followed by other information in descending order of importance.  This shape is useful when reporting important or breaking news, when timeliness is of the essence.  If you are the first to report a significant development, you’ll want to tell the audience what has happened right at the top of your story.  A report on a massive storm, for example, likely would begin with the death toll and the location of the heaviest damage.  Writers who resist using this structure when it is called for may be accused of “burying the lead,” making it more difficult for the audience to determine the story’s importance.

INVERTED PYRAMID

In the inverted-pyramid structure, information following the lead expands or develops the point that is made in the lead.  In the case of the storm report, the writer might describe the scene of the worst devastation, and then include a quote from a survivor or an emergency worker.  Supporting paragraphs would elaborate on the topic, filling in details and providing background on the storm.  In a longer story, a reporter might include secondary information that is related to the primary theme but not directly. The storm story, for example, could include information about international relief efforts, and the needs of survivors, both immediate and long term.  One reason for the popularity of this structure is that editors can cut from the bottom to save space and time without worrying about cutting vital information.

A modified form of the inverted pyramid is known as the “hourglass” structure.  It begins, in a similar fashion, with the most important information – but after a few paragraphs it takes a turn and becomes a narrative, usually told in chronological order.  Sticking with the example of the story about the massive storm, a reporter could start with a hard lead, provide a few paragraphs of support, and then tell the story of the storm as witnessed by one survivor.  This kind of story form requires a clear transition between the opening section and the narrative.  A reporter might write something like, “Farmer Iqbal Khan was in his barn when the wind kicked up …” to begin the bottom half of an hourglass story.  Some stories are written in a purely chronological form, but this structure is most often used for features.

HOURGLASS

Still another story form is the “diamond” structure.  A reporter using this structure would begin with an anecdote, introducing a character whose experience illustrates what the story is all about.  This small story would then broaden out to show its wider significance. Toward the end, the reporter would return to the individual character’s story as a way of concluding the narrative.

Reporters using this structure often use a device known as a “nut” paragraph (or nut graph) to explain why the story matters – the word nut signifying the hard center of the story.  Jack Hart, managing editor of Portland’s Oregonian newspaper, says nut graphs “can answer any questions raised in leads, explain why stories are significant, and place stories in meaningful contexts.”  The nut graph needs to be early enough in the story to make clear to the reader why he or she should bother to keep reading.

The diamond form is frequently used in television news and newspaper reports.  For example, a reporter might begin a story about a new AIDS treatment by introducing a patient who needs the treatment, then describe the experimental drug and how it works, and conclude by noting that doctors give the patient we met earlier only a limited time to live if the new treatment is not effective.  Whatever form you choose, the middle of the story should keep the audience engaged and interested.  Good writing, a magazine editor once said, makes the reader want to find out what happens next.

DIAMOND

Endings

Unless you are using the traditional inverted pyramid style and you expect the bottom of your story to be trimmed by an editor, it’s a good idea to have an ending in mind when you begin writing, much as it is helpful to have a destination in mind when you set out on a journey.  This is particularly important in broadcast news because of the way it’s presented.  Unlike print or online news, broadcast news is linear – the audience can’t choose the order in which they’ll receive the information – and research has found that viewers and listeners tend to remember best what they hear last.  For that reason, many broadcast stories conclude with a summary ending, reinforcing the story’s main point.

Endings often echo beginnings, in that they return to an important place or a person.  In a chronological narrative, the ending is what happens last.  If a story has raised a problem, the ending might offer a solution.  Endings frequently look toward the future, to what might happen next.   And occasionally a story may end with a strong quote or a sound bite.  This is rarely justified, however, and should be used only when the quote is so powerful that writing anything more would be a letdown for the audience.

Attribution

A key difference between a news story and an editorial or opinion column is the use of attribution.  Attribution simply answers the question, “Who says?”  It identifies the source of the information reported, particularly any controversial statements or questionable information.

Attribution can be explicit or implied.  Here’s an example of explicit or direct attribution:  “The man was arrested and charged with murder, police sergeant Antonio Costa said.”  Rewritten, using implied or indirect attribution, the sentence would read, “Police arrested the man and charged him with murder.”  In both cases, the audience can tell that the source of the information is the police.

One major reason to attribute information in most news stories is to allow readers, listeners, and viewers to decide for themselves whether to believe it.  For example, a report that North Korea has decided to suspend its nuclear program could be seen as more or less credible by some audiences, depending on who is quoted as saying so: a visiting Chinese official or an international team of scientists.

Another reason for attribution is to place responsibility for a controversial statement where it belongs, with the person who said it, not with the reporter or the news organization.  This does not imply immunity from lawsuits, as legal protections vary from country to country.  But it is good journalistic practice to make clear who is making allegations or taking a particular stand.

Not all information in a news story needs to be attributed, however.  Naming the source of every bit of information would make stories almost incomprehensible.  Information that a reporter observed directly can be stated without attribution.  Indisputable or well-accepted facts do not need to be attributed, either.  For example, a reporter could say which team won a soccer match without attribution because the final score would not be in doubt.  But writing that one candidate won a political debate would need to be attributed, or it would cross the line from fact into opinion.

Quotes and Sound Bites

News stories are told primarily in the reporter’s words, but most stories also include the words of other people, in quotations or sound bites.  When used effectively, quotes make stories stronger by sharing the direct experience of someone involved.  Using a quote up high in a story can make it more interesting to the audience, because quotes provide a personal connection to the story.

By definition, a quotation must be attributed so the audience knows who said it.  Direct quotes are at least one sentence long and are in the exact words of the speaker.  They’re used when most of what a speaker said is worth repeating.  Partial quotes, primarily used in print, can be just a word or a phrase the speaker said, which are used when the full sentence may be confusing or too long.  The reporter has the responsibility of putting partial quotes into context so the meaning of what the speaker said is unchanged.  For example, when French President Jacques Chirac addressed his country after weeks of social unrest, he said: “We will build nothing lasting without fighting discrimination, which is a poison for society.”  Some reporters used that full, direct quote in their stories.  But in London’s Guardian newspaper, only one word of the quote appeared in the lead paragraph: “Jacques Chirac … launched an appeal to combat the ‘poison’ of racial discrimination.”

It’s never worth quoting everything someone says in an interview. But how do you choose what to quote directly?  The basic rule is simple: Don’t use a direct quote or sound bite if you can say it better yourself.  Too many news stories are stuffed full of quotes that fail this test, most of which come out of the mouths of officials.  Avoid quotes that merely state facts, especially in bureaucratic language.  Who needs to hear the mayor say, “We expect to have a decision next week on contingency plans for the distribution of municipal funds to low-income recipients”?  That kind of information would be much better paraphrased, that is, rewritten in clear, concise language by the reporter.  In this case, the reporter might have written, “It will be at least a week before people can expect to get any money from the city, according to the mayor.”

The best quotes are subjective, adding insight and perspective to stories.  They use colorful language and reflect on personal experience or expert knowledge.  They have passion, says television investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski.  “During interviews, try and capture the passion,” he says.  “During writing, make sure not to miss it.”  One good rule of thumb is to use quotes that sound authentic, not as if they have been read from a script.

Once you’ve chosen the best quotes, build your story around them.  But reporter Bob Dotson, with U.S. television network NBC, warns, “Don’t use sound bites as substitutes for more effective story telling.”  Reporters who simply string quotes or sound bites together often are taking the lazy way out.

Numbers

A journalism teacher once described her students as “do-gooders who hate math.” Most journalists will never come to love mathematics, but they need it, and they need to know why.   Numbers may look solid and factual, but they are not infallible.  Journalists need numerical competence in order to tell the difference between a meaningless number and a significant one, or they risk writing stories that are misleading and confusing, at best, and, at worst, flat out wrong.

Journalists need mathematics intuition so they can tell when the numbers they’re looking at just don’t add up.  They need math mechanics to find the meaning behind figures and data.  They need mathematical concepts so they can understand banking and business, bankruptcy and boom times.  Simply put, journalists need mathematics skills to make sense of numbers the way they need language skills to make sense of words.

Competent journalists are both capable and careful with numbers.  They’re quick to spot an implausible number, and they have a basic working knowledge of arithmetic and statistics so they can confirm their suspicions.  They know how to calculate percentages, ratios, rates of change, and other relationships between numbers that tell far better stories than raw data can.  They can and should translate numbers into terms that readers and viewers can easily understand.

Journalists with numerical competence are more important than ever in today’s highly technical world.  They are the writers and editors who can assess and explain scientific, medical, technological, and economic developments.  They are the journalists who can find stories in databases by crunching numbers themselves, instead of waiting for someone with a vested interest to do it for them.

Once the numbers have been checked and rechecked, the reporter has to decide how to use them in a story.  The rule of thumb is: The fewer numbers, the better.  Numbers should be rounded off for simplicity’s sake, and put in context for clarity.  “A number has little significance on its own,” says Paul Hemp, author of Ten Practical Tips for Business and Economic Reporting in Developing Economies. “Its true meaning comes from its relative value.”  So a story about an increase in school spending might translate the raw numbers into the additional amount that will be spent per child.  A story about the number of people who die of lung cancer every year might note that it is the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every day.

Journalists who fail to master mathematics lack a basic skill needed to decipher much of the information in the world around them, such as crime statistics, pollution standards, and unemployment figures.  Without mathematics skills appropriate to their beat, journalists are bound to fall short in their quest for accuracy.

[Deborah Potter is executive director of NewsLab, an online resource center for journalists in Washington, D.C., that she founded in 1998.  She has taught journalism as a faculty member at The Poynter Institute and at American University, and spent more than 20 years in TV news, including 16 as a network correspondent for CBS News and CNN.]