Guidelines to writing news

[Joshawott 7]

You may all know that I'm usually the one putting up almost all the news you see on the site's front page (and as of late, the weekly polls). And Hyrule has given its members the opportunity most sites I've noticed don't, and that's to recommend news articles.

I tend to get pretty serious, if not (unfortunately) elitist about the news section here. I work for my school's newspaper, and I've been taught all the guidelines and rules professional journalists go by. But that aside, I want to dedicate a little thread to help you all figure out what kind of articles to put up, and how to write them. Most of this will be pretty much common sense, but for those who still want to know or are looking for advice, here it is.

NEWS WORTHINESS

We have a priority list of news subjects, and for the most part, it's pretty straight forward. Obviously, any news regarding Zelda makes the top of that list, especially now when there's a pretty bad dearth of Zelda news floating around. What goes under Zelda news is pretty self-explanatory. Also, it'd be pretty nice if we had some reviews on the Zelda games up. Like, if you've played and completed one of the games for the first time, a review of that would be very much appreciated.

Under that is news about Nintendo in general (you know, since they're the ones who make the games). Articles that fall under Nintendo are anything concerning the company as a whole or prominent figures in the company such as Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, or Reggie Fils-Aime. Articles focused on people should pretty much only be interviews or whatever they say concerning something like Zelda or the game systems.

Next up are Wii and DS (and soon to be DSi), though they're pretty interchangeable with Nintendo on the hierarchy. News concerning things like new color options, new Wii channels, release date line-ups, sales or record achievements, hardware redesigns, major software updates, price drops, and heaven forbid, patent lawsuits, would be pretty good article makes.

Next are games that aren't Zelda, but are on a Nintendo console. A pretty good example of this was when you saw myself and the others putting news up about Brawl. Also, first party titles take priority over third party. Game reviews for titles that aren't Zelda would be this priority as well.

Lastly, anything that doesn't have to do with Nintendo at all falls here (though I hope we never get into that kind of situation). As a matter of fact, you're better off putting things of this nature in the gaming section or the Open Floor, because there's a very high chance something submitted as news that isn't Zelda or Nintendo won't make the front page.

In addition to the hierarchy, you have to determine which story has the most "news worthiness". I have four guidelines I use when deciding what articles I write on: timeliness (how recent it is), proximity (which story will affect the greatest number of people), prominence (think of any newspaper: would Bush shooting a hole in one take prominence over which candidate wins the presidential election?), and human interest (what story would personally interest people? Interviews or game reviews are an example of stories that spark human interest). Use these in tandem to decide what you should submit as news.

WRITING STYLE

This part is just my obsessive-compulsive and partly control freak talking. These are some writing style guidelines you should consider following.

1. Identify every person referenced. If the identification is a title by which the person is actually called, it is capitalized when it comes in front of the name. If the identification is just that, don't capitalize it. Identification after the person's name (except proper nouns) are never capitalized. if the identification is longer than four words, it comes after the person's name. Names aren't preceded with Mr. or Mrs. Lastly, use the person's whole name and identification the first time he or she is referenced. After that, only the last name is used.

2. Numbers under ten are spelled out. Numbers ten and above are written numerically. Numbers at the beginning of sentences are always spelled out. Combine numbers over one million (three million, six million, 12 billion, 365 trillion). Never use ordinal numbers (1st, 6th, 32nd).

3. Dates are written according to standard English. Days of the week are always spelled out. The rule on ordinal numbers stated above also applies to dates.

4. Avoid contractions. If it's an organization, spell out the full title the first time refereced, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. The abbreviation is used in later references.

5. Quotes are always in a separate paragraph.

6. Italicize game titles.

7. Quotes and actions are past tense. The story's title is written in present tense.

I kept formality in written speech in mind with these rules. For articles such as reviews or editorials, I'm not as uptight about things such as, say, contractions. Articles like that, which I identified as ones that spark human interest, are supposed to entertain. General news is just there to inform. You may have noticed that in news articles, tone is pretty monotonous. Movie or album reviews have fun with words; they're meant to entertain you (which is probably why those kinds of writings always make it into the entertainment section of a news publication).

STORY FORMAT

The first sentence of a story always gives a general overview of what the article is about. After that, press enter/return, and then the line break is used, which creates the "read more" option you see on the front page. The line break is six hyphens: ------. After the line break, press enter/return again, and the rest of the article follows that.

The point of a news article is to inform someone who most likely doesn't have a whole lot of time on his or her hands. Therefore, a format I call the "inverted pyramid" is used. To explain the analogy, pretend you're taking a pyramid and putting it upside down. The base, which is the most important part of the pyramid, is that the top. The same goes for a news story: you want to put the most important facts at the beginning of a story, and as it goes on, facts take less and less priority. Articles don't have conclusions, as you may have noticed from reading the news; the end whenever the writer has nothing left to say on the subject.

The topic description is where you put the category of your news article. The ones you'll be using for the most part are the Zelda game's subtitle (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, etc), Nintendo, Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, and General Gaming (anything that has to do with a video game that isn't Zelda, but is on a Nintendo console).

That's pretty much all I have to say on this subject. Hopefully you found this helpful and will put these guidelines to use when you submit news.

[True Gamer 19]

I'll be using this guide any time I post news. I know I'm probably not the best news writer here.