MW UT Revision

P1 What is News?
7 News Values
P2
Inverted pyramid
5W1H
CAPS
Choose the News Values which best fit the article
P3 Hard & Soft Leads
Concept: difference between hard news lead and soft news lead
Content: hard news lead, soft news lead, nut graph
Understand: Given the same set of info, how do you write TWO types of leads?
P4 Research
Concept: Reliable and relevance in research for news stories
Content: Where to go: Factiva, Newslink, government websites and organisations
Understand: Given a story, where would you go to find information? How will you
assess what research is important in your story?
P5 Interviews
Concept: The role quotes play in a news story - why the golden quotes are important
and how they support your angle.
Content: The process of interviews, getting full names, ages, occupation, the rules of
good quotes
Understand: Given a story, what is a golden quote? How will you write out the quote
according to DMC style guide.
** Quotes are not facts, they support the facts**
P6 Structure of a news story
Concept: The process of stitching a story together
Content: What are transitions, how do you organize information?
Understand: Given information, organize your story, recognize how the writer transits
P7 Editing a news story
Concept: The role editing plays in news writing
Content: What is the editing toolkit? What do you need to look for? What is editing for
structure and editing for style?

Understand: Given information, find errors and edit correctly

Look for factual erros (dates, names, statistics), style errors (quotes, designations,
honorifics) and grammar/illogical sentence construction errors (subject-verb mix ups)
P8 Press Release
Concept: The role press releases play in PR and Marcomm and how it is different
from a news story
Content: What is the structure of a press release - all the elements
Understand: Given information, write out a press release, what are the key template
details -- boiler-plate, headline, dateline etc
** Press Releases are usually written for a company subject**
P9 Advertising Copy
Concept: What is advertising copywriting and how is it different from Press Releases
and EDMs?
Content: What is the process of writing ads -- single idea, writing to visual, how to
assess ads using AIDA
Understand: Given an ad, what is the central idea? Who is the target audience and
what makes it effective?
** Advertising has only 1 idea, whereas press releases can have a few ideas**
P10 Electronic Direct Mail
Concept: What is an EDM and how is it different from Press Releases and ADs?
Content: What is the process if writing EDMs - target audience, personalize and
direct
Understand: Given an EDM, who is the TA and what makes it effective? Difference
with EDM and Ads (one is specific, another more general)
P11 Writing Broadcast Copy
Concept: How do you write for broadcast, how is it different from writing for print?
Content: Broadcast writing rules - short, conversational, just the main point.
Remember that broadcast writing is not print news writing - it is short, sharp to the
point. It is conversational (meaning using simpler words)
Understand: Given a noes story, convert it into a 30/40 second broadcast script
(1sec : 3 words)
P12 Writing Broadcast Copy
Concept: How do you write to visuals and vice versa
Understand: Given a news story, suggest visuals that you can use in your broadcast
clip

Learn to pick visuals that match the story - take ethical considerations in your article