My Local News Challenge - 10 Tips for Writing Better News Stories
Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the My Local News Challenge.
This Challenge has now closed.
My Thoughts on the Entries
While it was interesting, in the most part, to read all the entries, I was disappointed at the overall standard of writing.
People generally found it difficult to write in a journalistic style.
Most of the posts were more like personal accounts than news stories.
I hope people will be able to continue to develop and evolve their writing skills - and also their presentation skills.
10 Tips for Writing Better News Stories
There are a number of simple ways people can improve their posts.
In case anyone is interested here are a few random tips based on my observations from the entries for this challenge...
Make introductory paragraphs more concise and to the point.
People commonly start their posts with too much unnecessary wording.For news stories use an impersonal, third person (he/she/it/they) style rather than writing in the personal, first person (I/we). Otherwise it is more like a Diary Game post than a news story.
Be selective with your choice of photographs. Use fewer, bigger photographs each with individual captions. The photos should add to the value of the story, not distract from it. And montages of multiple, small photographs really don't help.
Use your own photographs ideally. If not, make sure you use proper public domain or royalty free photos with the required accreditation. Citing the source of a copyrighted photo (for example from a commercial news service) does not give you permission to use it.
Edit your posts hard and well. Make every word count. Cut out all unnecessary, superfluous words.
Stick to the point of the story. Don't deviate. Tell the story well and concisely. Don't leave unanswered questions.
Make sure the basics are always included - who, what, when, where and why.Use concise, descriptive titles - don't make them too long.
Keep the layout simple. Don't use two columns. Use plenty of white space to make the article easy to read. Avoid long sentences and long paragraphs.
To cater for readers from around the world use a non ambiguous date format (like 8 April 2022 - not 8/4/22), and for any money amounts include a STEEM or USD conversion as well as the local currency figure.
To get better at writing news stories, read news stories from professional news services. Observe and absorb the style and structure.
I hope these tips will help people improve their posts.
The My Local News Challenge may return again in the future, so keep writing and keep improving.
My Local News Awards
As rewards for making good efforts in this challenge I am going to award prizes of 150 TRX to @tucsond, @ubongudofot and @whyshy.
Thank you to everyone who took part.
Pennsif
[ images and graphics by @pennsif ]
Man must always improve himself. There is no end to this development. It is only necessary to ask.
I learned a lot of things I didn't know in the 'My local news' challenge. It is also an advantage for me that my posts are reviewed by an expert on this subject and my mistakes are shown to me.
I participated in this challenge with a total of 3 news. Even though I had mistakes, I enjoyed writing them.
Thank you for your generous support and for this beautiful selection. Congratulations to the other selected friends.
Cc: @Pennsif
Thank You for the rewards from you. The 10 tips you suggest we will try to follow and learn about how to write good news.
It's true that writing "My Local News" is a bit difficult, it often gets carried away like writing a Diary Game, but slowly we will learn to write like a journalist like your advice, it just takes a little time because this is a new theme. We hope You continue to guide us.
Thanks you Sir for your guidance and support us.
We are currently learning a lot with Steem and the community will go a long way with these important tips. A great future for this community depends on these tips. I want to continue learn with Steem.👍🥳
Amazing! With each passing day, we learn daily. I have learned a lot. I will surely improve next time. Thank you so much
Thank you very much sir @pennsif. This is an important and very useful lesson for us to become good and professional news writers.
Thank you for giving us tips. Very useful tips. We are waiting for the next contest Mr. @pennsif
This is really helpful, useful and interesting tips sir. Thank you for always sharing informative steem news.
Wow, I am so grateful for this privilege and I promise to do better than this, in case this challenge will come up next time. I want to thank you so much for all the suggestions and corrections which you do give me each time I made a local News. I will make use of the tips which you have provided here.
Truly, I have learned a lot during this short time. I have also enrolled in online training for journalists, I hope to come up with better publications for My local News. Thank you very much, Sir, you have been a good tutor all along.
Thank you for this post. It was very informative and it will for sure help with my next attempt.
Thank you for tips for next challenge if it continues. Congratulations 🎉🎉 to all winners. I know I have shared local news like things first time and I didn't read newspaper from long time. But Inshallah next time I would do it in a better way. Cheers.