A news update does exactly what it says on the tin – updates readers with the latest information about an event or story. This type of article should be unbiased, and readers should still be able to form their own opinions about the topic even if those opinions conflict with yours.
The best news articles have a clear, concise style that is easily digestible and easy to understand. They also contain the most important details of a story and avoid excessive adjectives – instead, focus on active verbs (e.g. ‘Dr Jones is using this equipment to study malaria’) and use fewer words overall (refer to our Writing for the Web guide). Finally, always include at least one image in a news article – it grabs readers’ attention and adds visual appeal to your piece.
If you’re writing a news update, make sure to fact-check your piece carefully. You should check all the information you have against multiple reliable sources, and double-check names, dates and locations – a little bit of extra time spent on this can save you a lot of grief down the line! It’s also a good idea to get someone else to read your piece before you submit it – they can point out any glaring errors that you may have overlooked.
All news articles should be written using the Inverted Pyramid structure, which means that the most critical information is presented in the first paragraph of the story. Then, the body of the article builds upon that information with more background, key details and expert quotes.