JanineThe people of East Leeds are at the heart of what East Side Story is about, the East Side Story is their story. We want to welcome writing from anyone that lives or works in the area, and if it meets our editorial guidelines, we will put it up. However, writing an article might feel intimidating the first (or even the hundredth time), so Natalie Tharraleos has reached out to a fantastic local Leeds journalist who wrote for Leeds Other Paper to ask him to share his top 5 tips.
Check out the bio for Tony Harcup at the end of the article and links to his fantastic books.
The submission page is here if you’d like to submit a story or email editor@eastidestory.uk
Thinking of writing for East Side Story?
Leeds-based author Tony Harcup shares his Top 5 Writing Tips
1) Start where the action is
Try to identify the most important, interesting, exciting, unusual or amusing thing about your topic. Start with that rather than trying to tell everything in chronological order.
For example, Last month there was a well-attended meeting to discuss possible traffic-calming measures in… sounds pretty dull.
More likely to grab readers’ attention would be something that happened because of the meeting. Such as, Residents stopped traffic with a sit-down protest against speeding cars.
Even if you are just reporting on a meeting, you can still pick a strong angle, such as Parents warned council leaders they will have blood on their hands if one more child is knocked down on… If you start where the action is, you can tell the rest of the story lower down. Nobody will read the rest if you begin with a dull intro.
2) Keep it short and sharp
Don’t be too wordy. Fancy writing excludes some people who might otherwise find the information interesting or useful, so put clarity above showing off your vocabulary.
Keep it reader-friendly by avoiding jargon and abbreviations. As a general rule, short words are better than long and the same goes for sentences and paragraphs.
This does not mean you can never write about difficult or complicated things. It just means trying to do so as clearly as possible; and avoiding complicated sentences that go on and on, with lots of commas, even semi-colons, when a full stop might be better. The maximum impact often comes with a minimum of punctuation. When in doubt, break a long sentence into two.
3) Make every story a people story
Keep people at the heart of your writing. That means translating announcements about new initiatives, strategies, refurbishments or reports into stories about the local people whose lives will be most affected. For example, what impact will proposed changes to public transport plans have on bus fares and timetables? Does a new housing strategy mean that rents will go up? If there is a local community celebration going on, what do those taking part have to say about it? Quoting the words of people directly involved may not always be possible but it can improve most stories.
4) Remember the 5 Ws
If you are writing something for East Side Story or similar, try to answer the questions known as the 5 Ws: Who? What? When? Where? Why? There is also an H: How? Not every question applies equally every time, but keeping the 5 Ws in mind can be a useful guide to researching and writing a story. Be specific rather than vague. For example, don’t tell readers, “It is believed that…” tell us who believes it and why. Always check details, including spellings. Then check them again.
5) Read your writing out aloud
Whenever you think you might have finished a piece of writing, try reading it out to yourself. Do the words make sense when you hear yourself speaking them? Is the punctuation helpful in setting the pace? Can you read it aloud without getting out of breath or stumbling over any awkward bits? Unless the answer to all these questions is Yes, the writing is not finished. Keep working at it.
The above are tips rather than hard and fast rules, so feel free to ignore most of them if you’ve got a better way of telling a story. Just don’t ignore the bit about checking details. Further advice can be found in the book Journalism: Principles and Practice, the Style Guide of which is free to download from: https://study.sagepub.com/harcup4e/student-resources/style-guide-for-journalists
Meet the Author: Tony Harcup
Tony Harcup wrote for the alternative Leeds Other Paper in the 1970s and 1980s before going on to work as a staff and freelance journalist for newspapers and magazines locally and nationally. He later moved into journalism training as a lecturer, and his books are used in courses in many countries.
The book Alternative Journalism, Alternative Voices features several chapters on Leeds Other Paper/Northern Star. His other titles include the Oxford Dictionary of Journalism, Journalism: Principles and Practice, and What’s the Point of News? A Study in Ethical Journalism. Tony lives in Leeds and is now a freelance writer and an Emeritus Fellow in Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is a Life Member of the National Union of Journalists.
Links to more info about the books mentioned above:
Alternative Journalism, Alternative Voices
https://www.routledge.com/Alternative-Journalism-Alternative-Voices/Harcup/p/book/9780415521895
Oxford Dictionary of Journalism
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-dictionary-of-journalism-9780199646241?cc=gb&lang=en&#
Journalism: Principles and Practice
https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/journalism/book268232#description
What’s the Point of News? A Study in Ethical Journalism
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-39947-4
Links to two of Tony’s articles that are free to access online:
How to be an ethical journalist (about the NUJ Code of Conduct)
What is news? (an academic article co-written with Deirdre O’Neill)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1150193
