john pipkin

Before you begin writing your second draft, look carefully at the news release map and the sample news releases. Then add to your first draft the second-draft parts, divisions, or sections. Then expand or develop parts, edit excess parts, instant essay and reorder and regroup ideas, sentences, and paragraphs as needed.

A news release is a clear, simply ordered report or description. It usually starts with a sentence or two that summarize what the release is about. Traditional news release writing then develops by using what are called the five W's of journalism. These five W's are meant to describe everything basic and important to readers of a news story. The five W's answer five basic questions:

Who --Who are the people involved?

What --What happened or happens?

Where --Where did/does this take place?

When --When in time did/does this take place?

Why or How--Why did/does this happen, or how?

You should be aware that these 5 W's questions usually are answered twice:

(1) all five in the beginning one to two sentences, and

(2) each one more fully in its own paragraph (or more).

In what order should you answer the 5 W's? In the introducton, because you are trying to use them quickly in a summarizing way, you may answer the 5 W's in any order that is convenient and quick. Many journalists working in this traditional form try to learn to answer all 5 W's in the introduction in just one sentence: for example, "Jack and Jill climbed up the hill Saturday to fetch a pail of water." (Or, using "how" instead of "why," "Jack and Jill climbed up the hill Saturday using the newest developments in MountainWare brand equipment.")

In the body--the divisions or sections that make up the main part of the paper after the introduction--you should use the 5 W's with THE MOST IMPORTANT OR INTERESTING FIRST. In fact, this tradition of using the most interesting “W” first—and the least interesting “W” last—is called the "inverted pyramid" of journalism.