Dear Parent/Teacher: A Bite of Writing is a series of units intended to serve as supplements to a Language Arts curriculum.

Writing, in its various forms, is core to education, work, and all of life. At Little Darlings Press, we strive to provide parents and teachers with quality units that will encourage good writing skills in a way that is both engaging and fun. As homeschoolers and educators, we know that writing is intertwined with so many other subjects, but it doesnt need to be all grammar and essays. Bring a little variety into writing with units by Little Darlings Press. Journalism: Newspaper Writing is ideal for students in middle school and high school. Included is information about news articles and feature articles as well as photojournalism. Also included are fun, creative assignments, writing opportunities and a suggested field trip. We hope you and your student(s) enjoy this unit! Please direct your questions or comments to: bitesizewriting@hotmail.com Visit our blog at: www.bitesizewriting.blogspot.com Free weekly writing assignments are published on our blog throughout the school year!

All written work in this unit was created by Little Darlings Press. We grant permission to the purchaser of these materials to use one unit per single family, single co-op, or single student in a classroom. Questions related to these terms can be directed to the email address listed above.

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IN THIS UNIT Introduction Journalism: Newspaper Writing Newspapers Yesterday Newspapers Today and Tomorrow Rules of Journalism From Local to Global News Sections of a Newspaper

The Style Guide

News Photography and Photojournalism Editing and Proofreading Make Your Own Newspaper

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Feature Articles

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News Articles

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Elements of a Good Article

Introduction Newspaper writing is both interesting and fun. With an endless supply of news and feature articles in the world, in schools, in the home everywhere the stories will never end! This unit will allow students to learn a little bit about the history of newspapers, different types of journalism, how to write great articles, and much, much more!

For assignments in this unit students will need access to newspapers, both printed and online. Again, utilize your local newspaper. It should have stacks of back copies for the taking. Or, if your family subscribes to any newspapers, use them after they have been read.

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An optional field trip to a local newspaper is a great addition to this unit. Simply phone a local paper and inquire about a tour. Most newspapers are happy to accommodate school groups.

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Journalism: Newspaper Writing Needs for this section: One copy of a printed newspaper for each student and access to the Internet. Journalism is the act of gathering and writing news for radio, television, magazines, and newspapers. Broadcast journalists work with radio and television. Print media includes magazines, newspapers, brochures and other forms of material printed on paper. The most recent and fastest growing form of journalism is found in the form of online newspapers, blogs, magazines, and other materials on the Internet.

As we study newspaper journalism there will be discussion, research and examples from both printed and online newspapers.

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Writing for newspapers is very different from other forms of writing (magazines, books, blogs, etc.). Unlike creative writing, newspaper writing follows a standard set of rules and has its own style. While that style may vary some from newspaper to newspaper, there are some core elements within the industry, as you will see through this course.

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Teachers note: Do the following assignment together or assign them your student(s) homework. Assignment: 1. Look through a copy of a printed newspaper. Write down or discuss the nature of the articles you see. What are they about? 2. On the Internet, visit the site for the Minneapolis StarTribune at www.startribune.com. Notice that online access is limited unless you have a digital subscription. One of the fun aspects to an online subscription is that the newspaper is interactive with opportunities to watch video footage.

Discussion: Do you prefer to read a printed newspaper or online news? Why?

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Newspapers Yesterday Printed newspapers werent a possibility until the invention of the movable type printing press. Do you know who invented this device? It was Johannes Guttenberg in the 15th century. It wasnt until the 17th century, however, that the first newspapers were circulated in Europe. Bibles were among the first books produced by the printing press. In the American colonies, the first newspaper was called Publick Occurrences both Foreighn and Domestick. It was created by Benjamin Harris in 1690. It was soon shut down, however, as there was no license to sell it. By the 1800s there were several hundred U.S. newspapers, mostly written with a political and partisan tone. Cheap newspapers, like the New York Sun , a penny press founded by Benjamin Day in 1833, were marketed for the working class. The demand for printed news was so popular with this growing population that the industry boomed. With growth in the newspaper industry, journalistic standards were developed and are still followed today. The demand for good, truthful and fair reporting became essential. Eventually stories arrived at newspaper offices via telegraph lines. As a result, stories were shortened to save on words. Journalistic writing became tight, brief, and to the point. This style of journalism is still practiced today. The Associated Press is born During the time of developing industry standards, the worlds oldest and largest agency was born: The Associated Press (AP). The AP began as a cooperative of several large newspapers wanting to share news from across the seas as stories arrived from Europe.
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Today, the AP style of writing is largely used within the industry and accepted as the correct guide and reference book when writing newspaper articles. Have students search for copies of old news pages on the Internet from the 1800s and 1900s and report their findings. Old Newspaper Sample Jan. 2, 1750 issue of The Pennsylvania Gazette published by Benjamin Franklin:

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Newspapers Today and Tomorrow

The 20th Century and Beyond The newspaper industry began to slowly decline in the mid-20th century with the introduction of radio, followed by television. More recently, popularity of Internet use has caused a further decline in the sale of printed newspapers. In an era of news available in many forms and at any hour of the day, waiting for the morning or evening edition of the newspaper is a thing of the past. News from all around the globe is received with a touch of a button.

Whether news is produced in printed or digital format, the fact remains that someone must do the work of researching, reporting and writing the news. That someone is a journalist. Assignment: Have your student(s) brainstorm a title for a family or school newspaper. For this task, write down several words (see list below for ideas) and craft the headline together. A good title will have at least one newsy word and one more personal word in it. For example, a local paper for a town named Dustin might be called the Dustin Daily.

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Nevertheless, many folks still like to hold onto a printed newspaper and read it. Research indicates, however, it is mostly older generations subscribing to printed copies of the news. Younger people often rely on the convenience and instant availability of news online.

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