• Give the most important information first. Answer the questions, Who? What? When?
Where? Why? and How? within the first two paragraphs. In the body of the story expand
on the first two paragraphs.
• Make it interesting to the whole union, not just your local area. Ask yourself, “What
would someone who was not here want to know about this?”
• Stick with the facts. Do not sermonize, editorialize or use your story to thank people.
• Use action words. Write in active voice rather than passive voice. Example: rather than
writing “the church was painted by the members,” write “the members painted the
church.”
• Adjectives and adverbs should be used sparingly.
• Identify every person by first and last name in the first mention. Last names are used in
further mentions (unless two names with the same family name are used). Mrs., Dr. and
Pastor are NOT first names!
• In all Recorder stories, social and professional titles are not used (Dr., Mr., Mrs., Prof.,
Eld., etc.). Identify the role or title of each person you’ve identified to show their
connection to the story. The name comes first, then the institution/organization they’re
connected with, followed by their title within that organization. Examples: “Simon
Liversidge, senior pastor at The Place, led a group…”; “Ted Wilson, General Conference
president, participated in the jog-a-thon…”
• Be brief. Limit news stories to 400 words or less. To save space, dates and states are
abbreviated following the Associated Press Stylebook style—not the two-letter postal
abbreviations.
• Identify the story’s author. Place contact information at the end of each story. Provide the
author’s name as it should appear in print, the e-mail/mailing address and a daytime
phone number the editor can call when clarification is needed.
Why photographs make your article more appealing.
How to take creative, action-based pictures.
So Moses went down to the people and told them, “You have been delivered from slavery to newspaper editors. From now on you are free to publish on your websites anything you want, even if it is of no interest to anyone, is poorly written, and misrepresents the church. But see that you do it not.”
1) You shall not publish copyrighted materials without permission, even if you give full credit to the writer and to the publisher who paid the writer. Publishing without permission is a violation of federal and international copyright laws.
2) You shall not advertise products for sale. Exception: if a school or church group sells a product to raise money for a project, announce that in a news story, but direct readers to another place to learn about the product and how to purchase it.
3) You shall not put all your news in the “Abstract” or “Description.” Those are only teasers. The full story goes in the story box.
4) You shall not leave the story box empty. Readers will feel insulted if they click on a link and find nothing. Their opinions of the church leaders’ intelligence will suffer.
5) You shall not shout at the readers. Do not put all your story in upper case, bold or large font. There are two or three fonts in newspaper stories for the headlines, subheads and text. Do likewise.
6) You shall not show off your design talents. As the old-time banjo plucker, Pete Seeger, said of Earl Scruggs, the inventor of bluegrass picking, “I wish I had the ability to pick like Earl, and the good sense not to.” Your editor enables you to underline, highlight, use fancy fonts, colors, align center, etc. Don’t. Keep it clean and uncluttered to make it more readable.
7) You shall not share every little announcement with other churches. They may like to read about your special events, but if they see too many announcements, such as that the time of your next board meeting has changed, they will cancel your news feed.
8) You shall not write book titles for headlines. Headlines include a subject and a verb. Ex. Use "Church Family Reunites for Baptism", instead of "The Baptism".
9) You shall not insert pictures that are too small. They will look bad when resized.
10) You shall not go on and on. The majority of web visitors never scroll down. People go to websites to get information quickly, not to read the great American novel.
1. Accuracy
Time pressures, deadlines, or difficulty in contacting primary sources of information all contribute to inaccurate reporting. Yet accuracy remains the single most important aspect of news writing. Verifying information and double-checking quotes is fundamental.
2. Objectivity
For news to have value, it must be perceived as objective. A reporter cannot make subjective or promotional statements without doing irretrievable damage to the credibility of his or her news report.
3. The “inverted pyramid” structure
“A good lead sentence is like ice—so slick that, before they realize it, readers have slid into the middle of your story.” –Professor Carl Sessions Stepp, University of Maryland
The basis of the so-called “inverted pyramid” style of news writing is arranging information and facts in descending order of importance within the article. Therefore, the lead, or introductory sentence, should draw out the most significant aspect or facts. The lead sentence must tell readers why this story is important and why they should keep reading it.
Lead sentence/first paragraph:
Most significant aspect of the story and essential information—what, when, who.
Middle:
Develop the story with more information. Use quotes. Explain why, how.
Tell What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who.
As a general rule, every news story must answer the questions: “What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who.” Don’t assume that your audience is already familiar with the context of the story or basic background information. Be concise, but be sure to include all essential information.
4. Avoid Adventist Jargon
Using Adventist jargon can alienate an audience unfamiliar with religious terms or administrative jargon of the church. In the unofficial dialect of “Adventist-speak,” a new church member may be referred to as a “precious soul won for Christ.” At evangelistic meetings, the speaker “preached the Word,” “hearts were touched,” and “the Lord blessed.” Such phrases can invade the work of any Adventist writer, raising communication barriers that obscure the main message. Effective communicators make the effort to recognize and translate Adventist jargon so that anyone can read and understand.
5. Other Style Points
Avoid sexist language, such as using “he” or “his” as generic for both men and women.
Acronyms should be spelled out in full when first used in an article. The acronym alone is sufficient for all subsequent usages, e.g. the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).
