BBC website journalists have to be able to get all the key information inside the top four paragraphs of a story, as this section is used on the Red Button service. How to write for the web School Report's web masterclass Writing stories for a website is very different from writing essays at school or from writing scripts for radio and television - it's even different from writing for a newspaper! Most people scan the page and quickly click onto something else if they aren't interested, so you have to grab their attention. Copyright © 2020 BBC. This video shows you how to write an article for Exercise 6 of IGCSE ESL reading and writing core paper. The three C's - making sure your writing is Clear, Concise and Correct - are a good starting point for any web writing. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Add that extra touch. They aren't all necessarily going to be like you, either in their age, where they live or what they are interested in. And always run a spell-check, but don't totally rely on it: a spell-checker would be perfectly happy with this sentence: "The Primer Minister mad a trip tot he White Hose to discus the issue wit the President" - but it doesn't make a lot of sense! Nothing undermines a story more than getting a simple fact wrong, like somebody's age or the spelling of somebody's name. We want to help you understand English more. For instance, Sir Alex Ferguson might be very well-known in the world of football, but you need to tell your readers that he is the manager of Manchester United. So to help them understand your story, you need to explain things to them. Think about how you read when you use the internet. Don't assume people know! Grab your reader's attention right away, and reveal immediately what your story is about. Get somebody else to read it too, and see whether they understand the story. One of the most important elements of a good online story is to avoid large chunks of unbroken text. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Media requires JavaScript to play. Try to answer all the 5 W's - Who, What, Why, When and Where. Summarizing a news article is a good opportunity for people to develop their writing skills, as most high school and undergraduate students will likely need to summarize heavier texts as they continue down their career path. Writing stories for a website is very different from writing essays at school or from writing scripts for radio and television - it's even different from writing for a newspaper! So use photos, bullet points, crossheads (like the BREAK IT UP one just above) or other techniques to help break up the page. For more tips on writing for the web, you could also read this. Read more. Get more tips on writing journalistic prose in this article. It's a good discipline to have - can you sum up your whole story in four paragraphs (which equates to about 80 words)? The best way to get these is to speak to and interview the people involved yourself, so you can ask the questions you want to know the answers to. Read more. For starters, your headline and first line of your article are the most important. Lots of research has shown that it is very off-putting to readers, who tend to click onto something a bit easier on the eye. The top four paragraphs should provide all the information a reader would need if they didn't know anything about it in advance. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. Truth and accuracy are two of the BBC's most important values, so double check all the facts with two sources whenever you can, and stop to think before you use words like unique, unprecedented, first, last and so on. IGCSE ESL Exercise 6 How to write a school magazine article helps you to write this text style with the appropriate content and language to gain a high mark in this part of the exam. 7. more advanced guide from the BBC's College of Journalism. Please turn on JavaScript. IGCSE ESL Exercise 6 How to write a school magazine article helps you to write this text style with the appropriate content and language to gain a good mark in this part of the IGCSE ESL exam. Here are some of the key elements to think about when you are producing a webpage for your reports. Most journalists have produced a few shockers during their careers, but thankfully most have been changed before getting published! A great way to liven up a report is with some quotes from the people who are part of the story. But here's a few that didn't, from various sources: Remember - the best headlines are often a result of collaboration, so don't feel you have to 'go it alone'. It's not always possible to talk to somebody directly, so sometimes you might need to use quotes from other sources: perhaps a press release or a personal website. Chat to other people and see what ideas you come up with. Make sure you quote them accurately, but don't feel you have to get every "...erm", "...like I say" or "...yeah" in the report. Don't assume everybody knows who this is! That's fine, but you should make it clear where the quotes came from, so your audience understands. Read your article out loud before Now all students can enjoy reading and listening to news. 100 Opinion Article Ideas for High School and College Published on : October 22, 2018 February 27, 2019 With citizen journalism on the rise, high schools and colleges encourage students to partake in this forceful expression of civic-mindedness by crafting opinion articles. We write news in three different levels of English. BBC Collge of Journalism's guide to writing for the web. Avoid headlines which are unclear, assume too much knowledge or promise something that the story doesn't provide. Short words in short sentences give you a much better chance of keeping hold of your reader, and are easier to understand for a wider audience. There Read your story back to check it makes sense. You’re going to need it. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. You can tidy up somebody's words as long as you don't change the meaning. It means you have to strip out everything but the most important and interesting details. Find out about our updated resources for School Report 2012! In many cases there are longer alternatives - but do they really add anything, or are you just trying to sound clever? Think about what would make you click on a story, and about how to get the most interesting elements of your story across. How is writing a journalistic article different from writing a regular essay? Remember, you will nearly always be competing with another news source, and you’ll both be trying to feed your information to the same audience. A good headline should "tell and sell" the story. This video shows you how to write an article for Exercise 6 of IGCSE ESL reading and writing extended paper. If you can answer all these questions, you are on the right track. Look back at this page and see some of these features in use, and think about how the page would look if they weren't there. On a story more than getting a simple fact wrong, like somebody 's age or the spelling of 's. Somebody 's age or the spelling of somebody 's words as long as you do n't change the meaning report! Should `` tell and sell '' the story does n't provide but do they really add anything or. Story does n't provide the meaning most people scan the page and quickly click onto something else they. 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