by Jeremy Orbell

Created on: February 06, 2008

When writing an article for on-line or print publications, a knowledge of the fundamentals of style and layout will stand you in good stead in making sure your piece stands out from the crowd.

If you look at a newspaper report or press release, you will notice that the whole piece is summed up in its opening paragraph. This gives the reader enough information to know whether the topic is interesting enough to read further. In addition, you can expect to find five key issues explained during the course of an article: Who? What? When? Where? How?

1. Who?

Following the introductory overview it is common practice to name who is involved in the story. This does not necessarily mean actual names but could relate to a group of people, a political party, residents in a community or even whole nationalities.

2. What?

Next comes the part concerning why the article is being written in the first place. What has happened / is happening to the people involved? Always try and write in a way that enables the reader to feel he is involved by making the article relevant to them. This is vital so that you can engage the reader in the story you are trying to tell.

3. When?

The 'when?' is particularly important if writing a news report as a newspaper needs its information to be as up to date as possible. In periodicals which are published less frequently, facts such as precise times become less important so time of day i.e. morning rush hour would be sufficient. The exception to this is when publicising an upcoming event.

4. Where?

If this is a news story on a past event or is concerning something that is going to happen soon, the location is very important. The detail is again dependent on the audience you are writing for so you will need to write accordingly. Remember that statements like, 'the incident took place opposite the Town Hall on Lutterworth High Street' will only mean something to people who know the area. If you are writing for a national publication there will be those who won't even know where Lutterworth is, let alone the Town Hall. In this instance it makes sense to quote the county (Leicestershire) or broader area (East Midlands).

5. How?

With any reported incident there is more to it than just the event itself. If there was a fire, what caused it? If there have been job losses what reasons can be attributed to the company having to make the cuts? There is always a back story so explaining the possible reasons as to what happened will give the reader a better understanding

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