Academic Writing – Newspaper Report

 

In academic writing, there are many styles and topics to choose from. In Indonesia one such topic is newspaper report writing. This is a popular style for Indonesian national and regional newspapers. News reports can cover cultural events, exhibitions, bazaars, concerts, fashion shows, parades, ceremonies, parties, fairs, shows, grand openings, and other planned special events. You can even make your own interesting newsworthy report and try to publish it in your favorite newspaper. A news report can be based on a real event, a fictional event, or a combination of both of them.

 

Writing a Newspaper Report

 

The News Writing Formula

 

Newspaper reports tell readers information about something that has happened. The story form most often used in newspaper reports is the ‘inverted pyramid’. It begins with what is called ‘the lead’ (or ‘lede’ in some newspapers) which conveys the most important information in the story. The paragraphs which follow the lead explain and provide evidence to support the lead, and these paragraphs are arranged in descending order of importance.

 

Most Important

↓

Least Important

 

Newspapers have this formula for two important reasons:

 

  1. The most important news must be provided first because the reader may stop reading at any time. Reading the first paragraph will give them the essential elements of the story.

 

  1. Many newspaper stories need to be cut to fit a certain amount of space. This format allows editors to cut stories from the bottom quickly without destroying the story.

 

Writing Leads

 

The lead, a statement of the most significant aspect of the event, is presented as simply and clearly as possible in the first paragraph of the report. It sets the tone and advertises what is coming in the rest of the story. Journalists traditionally answer six questions in the lead (commonly referred to as the ‘5 Ws and 1 H). These six questions are:

 

  1. Who?
  2. What?
  3. Where?
  4. When?
  5. Why?
  6. How?

 

The information from every event you witness and every story you hear can be reduced to the answers to these six questions. For instance: Who is the main story about? What happened to that person? When did it happen? Where did the event take place? Why did it happen? How did it happen?

 

When examining or writing a news report, you should look at the report in more detail, while making note of the following:

 

  • The headline should catch the reader’s attention and give an idea of what the story is about. It should be short and direct, leaving out unnecessary words.
  • The first paragraph gives the main point of the story and answers the question about ‘who’.
  • The paragraphs that follow provide answers to the questions ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’.
  • The paragraphs are short and give information in a clear and concise way.
  • There are references to what people said. Direct speech and reported speech are generally found.
  • The report is written in the past tense because it refers to an event that has already happened.
  • The body of the report is presented in descending order of importance.

 

Subheadings can also be used within longer newspaper reports to focus on particular aspects of the event worth noting.

 

Using Quotations in News Stories

 

Newspaper reports frequently use ‘direct speech’ when they refer to what people said. When you quote someone who is attending an event or making observations about something that has happened, be sure to use the proper quotation format.

 

Read the following passage taken from a newspaper report:

 

  1. ‘Easygoing’ is probably the best description of Parker, who currently lives in Mammoth Lakes, California. He revealed that he had no idea how big Jakarta was until he arrived here.
  2. “I thought it was a small city, with only one million people,” he said. He said he loves the ‘easy personality’ of Indonesians.
  3. This was in evidence at Friday’s show, which was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. but began a half hour later. There were no complaints from Parker’s eager fans.
  4. Parker noted the contrast of the Indonesian audience with those in Japan, their previous stop before coming here. “The Japanese wanted to be on time, and they always looked at their watches.”

– Kwok, Yenni. ‘Jazzman Parker indulges audiences with sweet tunes’, The Jakarta Post

 

When you are using a quotation in your newspaper report, remember the following:

 

  • Put quotation marks before and after the actual words quoted.

“I thought it was a small city, with only one million people,” he said.

 

  • If the quotation comes first, place a comma inside the quotation mark before the reporting phrase.

“I thought it was a small city, with only one million people,” he said.

 

  • If the reporting phrase comes first, place the comma before the quotation is given.

He said, “I thought it was a small city, with only one million people.”

 

  • Capitalize the first word of the quotation as well as the first word of the sentence.

Parker said, “The Japanese wanted to be on time, and they always looked at their watches.”

 

  • If you break a quotation into two parts, enclose both parts in quotation marks and separate the parts with commas. Capitalize only the first word of the sentence.

“The Japanese wanted to be on time,” he said, “and they always looked at their watches.”

 

Note: For variation, use other reporting words, too, such as stated, declared, insisted, mentioned, reported, and maintained. Many other options are available at: https://www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/Reporting_Phrases30249.pdf, https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/learning_guides/learningGuide_verbsForReporting.pdf,

http://www.ef.com/english-resources/english-grammar/reporting-verbs/, and http://www.monash.edu/lls/llonline/writing/general/lit-reviews/3.4.xml.

 

 

 

Writing a Newspaper Report

Text Analysis

Dragon dance performed again after 20 years of neglect

By Sugianto Tandra

  1. SINGKAWANG, West Kalimantan (JP): Carpenter Cen Hian Sen is no Jet Lee, the famous Kung Fu actor from Hong Kong. In fact, Hian Sen does not do the ancient Chinese martial arts.
  2. But Hian Sen resembled the film star when he performed the dragon dance here early this month. Although perhaps Hian Sen’s footholds were not so firm.
  3. “I had not practiced (performing the dance) for about 20 years,” the exhausted 35-­year-old bachelor said with sweat pouring down his suntanned face.
  4. “I have to start it all over again … it’s very tiring,” he said. Hian Sen said he was 15 years old when he first joined his village dragon dance troupe. But he did not have the chance to develop the skill as the dance was officially banned.
  5. But on that fine morning, Hian Sen, along with 10 other men – plus several other substitute dancers – performed the dance, carrying a 20-meter-long “sacred dragon” decorated with red, yellow and green cloth. A lion dance was also performed by a group of teenage boys carrying three red, white and black lions.
  6. They all danced to the festive beat of drums and cymbals.
  7. Around 3,000 people flocked there from near and far to watch the show performed on a wet soccer field here. They were more than willing to buy tickets for Rp 5,000 (60 U.S. cents).
  8. “I am very happy. It’s really great,” Yap Doni, a 15-year-old ethnic Chinese boy, said.
  9. Many of the visitors came with their families, friends and relatives, taking turns to have their pictures taken near the dragon and lion models before the dances began.
  10. It was just another day for most non-Chinese people. But for Chinese all over the world, it was the much-anticipated 15th day of the Year of the Rabbit.
  11. Traditionally, this is the day for Chinese people to celebrate with big family feasts and parading troupes of the dancing dragon and lions. And that night is the paper lantern festival, called Cap Go Me (the night of the 15th).
  12. On the Sinkawang soccer field, the celebration was really special.
  13. Lim Fuk Luk, in his 60s, a clerk at the Tri Darma Bumi Raya temple – the town’s biggest and oldest temple – said it was no ordinary dragon in the town that day.
  14. The most senior performer that afternoon, Bun Jan Chin, 64 – he held the stick with the dragon fire balls on its ends – had to agree with him.
  15. The dragon head needed a blessing.
  16. Fuk Luk said that if not, the dragon dance – said to bring prosperity, security and luck to the town – would be just a waste.
  17. “Its players could even be possessed by evil spirits (if the blessing ritual was not done),” Jan Chin added.
  18. So Singkawang was made merry by people parading around town on trucks to prepare for the 15th day.
  19. And in this town by the mountain, the festivities were not just confined to that particular soccer field.
  20. Throughout the day, sounds of cymbals and drums filled the air from almost all the hundreds of Chinese temples and shrines across the town.
  21. Smaller lions, operated by teenage boys, were seen going from house to house, expecting to be given angpau (red envelopes containing money). Residents were more than willing to oblige. The Chinese believe they will get heavenly rewards in return.
  22. An elderly local at the soccer field was interviewed shortly before the dragon was set in across the country.
  23. “It’s more than 25 years now,” Ng Ka Kui, 68, said in his Hakka Chinese dialect.
  24. The population of Singkawang, 145 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Pontianak, is 57 percent Chinese of Hakka decent.
  25. Chinese-Indonesians in Pontianak saw even larger festivities.

 

Dragon dance banned

 

  1. The celebration of traditional Chinese cultural events like the dragon and lion dance festivals was banned in 1967 through Presidential Decree No. 14 on that year.
  2. The ban was said to be placed on Chinese cultural festivities because of the often close association between Chinese-Indonesians and mainland Communist China.
  3. Particularly resented by Chinese-Indonesians here concerning the Jiang Liong (dragon dance) banning was Presidential Instruction No. 14/1967 on Chinese religions, beliefs and traditions.
  4. “It represses our culture,” Budiman, chief organizer of that afternoon dragon dance on the soccer field, said.
  5. “It must be scrapped,” asserted Bong Cin Nen, a counselor at the local legislative body.
  6. Both agreed the regulation was only the tip of the iceberg of many discriminatory legal measures curtailing the basic rights of Chinese-Indonesians.
  7. The festival, if nurtured, is a potential tourist attraction.
  8. “It should be promoted instead of banned,” Budiman said.

 

 

Newspaper Report

Text Analysis

Dragon dance performed again after 20 years of neglect

  1. Features of a Newspaper Report
  2. Headline

short and straight

catches readers’ attention

contains main idea

unnecessary words are left out

  1. Lead

the place where the news comes from

the news source in capital letters, e.g. SINGKAWANG (JP) usually (not always) a complete and complex sentence

complete version of the main idea: who, what, when, where, why, how

 

  1. The content of the article

– the most to the least important information:

*the dragon dance performed by Hian Sen with 10 other men

*a lion dance performed by a group of teenage boys

*the visitors

*people parading around town

*festivities outside the soccer field

*smaller lions operated by teenage boys going from house to house

*background information

-Who is Hian Sen?

-What kind of celebration is it?

-What is Singkawang like?

-When is it conducted?

-Where does the event take place?

-Why was it banned?

-How did people react to the banning?

*other possibilities

– quotations from people organizing, performing, or attending the event

– a subheading focusing on some particular aspects of the event worth noting, e.g. the banning

– the initials of the reporter or the writer’s name (a ‘byline’)

 

  1. Vocabulary/Expressions

— The use of words in a newspaper report is normally more sophisticated than everyday language.

e.g. dance troupe, festivity, anticipated, possessed, confined, decree, repress, curtail, nurture

— Specific & concrete words: numbers, titles, occupation, proper names, colors, instruments

III. Structure

— very short paragraphs: sometimes only one-sentence paragraphs

— passive structures are common since the important idea comes first in a sentence, especially the event.

° A lion dance was also performed … (para 5)

° … it was the much-anticipated 15th day of the Year of the Rabbit (para 10) °The players could even be possessed … (para 17)

° So Singkawang was made merry … (para 18)

— no topic sentences necessary in this type of article.

— sometimes time expressions are used as transitions, e.g.

° But on that fine morning… para 5)

° And that night … (para 11)

° Throughout the day … (para 20)

— a lot of information is compacted into one sentence using clauses, and prepositional, participial, and complex noun phrases, e.g.

° … the famous Kung Fu actor from Hong Kong (para 1)

°… the ancient Chinese martial arts (para 1)

°… performed the dance, carrying a 20-meter-long “sacred dragon” decorated with red, yellow, and green cloth (para 5)

° … in this town by the mountain … (para 19)

 

Exercise 1: From the following facts, write a fictional newspaper report.

 

Who: Prince William, second in line to the British throne
What: Party
Where: Windsor Castle, London
When: June 21, 2016
Why: To celebrate his 34th birthday
How: Party with an ‘Out of Java’ theme for 400 guests
Other: ·         Guests: Queen Elizabeth II, William’s father (Charles), William’s wife (Catherine), his children (George and Charlotte), several other members of the royal family, the prince’s university friends, and celebrities such as Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), Nikita Mirzani, Titi Kamal, Bunga Citra Lestari, Ayu Ting Ting, Chelsea Olivia, and Pevita Pearce, among others.

·         Security breach: party crashed by a man who grabbed the microphone from the Prince and began shouting before security officers dragged him away.

 

Exercise 2: You are a reporter for a national entertainment magazine. You are the only reporter assigned to cover a guinea pig fashion show. Write an article about the fashion show for your magazine, describing who was there, where it was held, what the guinea pigs wore, what was involved in the fashion show, etc. Start by writing an eye-catching title. Then write the lead. Think of all of the important information your readers will want to know about the fashion show and what questions they will expect to be answered. After that, write the content from most important to least important. If you want to write a subheading you can as well. Add quotations also from people who attended the fashion show. The language used should be appropriate with the event covered. For instance, the language used for a fashion show will be similar to that used below with various photos included to make the report livelier. Divide the content into appropriate paragraphs. Write at least 900 words.

 

 

 

Guinea pig fashion show

a Chic headpieces are what make a fashion show! These piggies got appropriately dolled up donning their half Southern Belle and half royal spectacle attire to showcase real elegance and style. Wearing their eye-catching hats, they kept their outfits simple to portray a classy look.

bWell I never! Kissy! Kissy! Who can resist smooching such a graceful looking lass ready to steal the limelight?

cWhat an immaculately stunning traditional spring wear dress! There’s no need for fancy statement jewelry. This lace hemmed floral dress says it all!

dGrr. Grr. Don’t be fooled by my size. My tiger print outfit really represents my inner beast. This is a casual and timeless cool look. Who knew I could look so fresh and cute? This vibrant color pattern should really make the guys’ hats turn.

a“If I don’t win the fashion contest, I’m gonna give you the evil eye!”

eHappy Writing!