Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8

All of these chapters focus on different aspects of writing news articles. There is so much information and rules that need to be followed when one wants to become a professional journalist and write articles regularly. Chapters 5-8 go into detail about certain aspects of writing an article that writers need to be aware of. As I have written numerous articles throughout the semester I have begun to understand how important the things that are discussed in this chapter are.

Chapter five goes into great detail about how important it is to have multiple sources. I have definitely learned that this semester. If there is only one source in an article, it is most likely highly biased and unfair. Multiple sources illustrate that the journalist is showing both sides of the story and giving the reader all the facts.

Chapter six is much more detailed and it talks more about numbers and how to address percentages and numbers while writing an article. It is always important to give context when writing with numbers. The book gives an example of how if the budget for a small town went up $500,000 it would be a huge amount. However if it was for New York City it would be a very minute number, therefore it is extremely important to give the reader context when writing about money or percentages.

Chapters seven and eight had a huge impact on me as an aspiring journalist. Chapter seven talks about the inverted pyramid, which says that all the important information should go at the beginning of the story, while the much less essential facts should go at the end. In a society where people want the facts right away, writers much cater to there audience and make sure to give them what they want immediately. Oftentimes readers do not read the whole story, or the ending of a story is cut by the editor, thus the inverted pyramid is essential. Chapter eight also made me a better journalist. It talks about about ways in which to write to the reader. This means that the journalist much write in a way that leaves the reader wanting more, and make them want to finish the story.

All four chapters mad a big difference in my writing and my articles.