SHORT COURSES
News Writing: Write Stories with Impact
This course covers the essential components of news writer training, improving your copy skills and putting theory into practice.
This course covers the essential components of news writer training, improving your copy skills and putting theory into practice
Want to master how to write a news story? This news writer training course equips you to tackle stories confidently so you can produce clear, clean copy with impact. This course is available in sessions of either four hours or six hours – see further details below.
What You'll Learn: Introductions and story structure to press conference practice
What makes a story news? How do news reporters decide what to cover and where do they find stories? What determines which stories lead the news agenda or go viral? With insights from reporters and editors who are making the news, you'll learn how journalists think and reveal the secrets of their decision making – helping you develop your own "nose for news".
We'll spend time considering the key principles and golden rules of news stories so you have a strong grasp of the fundamentals or can refresh your skills. We'll walk you through the fundamentals of news writing – from the 5Ws and beyond – so that you'll hone your ability to write engaging news stories and craft attention-grabbing introductions.
You'll also be asked to put your skills into action: you'll be plunged you into a real-time news conference, and asked to produce a brilliant story from the information you glean from it. By simulating a situation that journalists often find themselves in, you'll understand how well you can think on your feet in a pressurised situation.
How you'll learn
We offer this course in sessions of either four hours (two modules) or six hours (three modules).
This three-module news writer training course will be led by an excellent trainer who will share their practical expertise through presentations, discussions, and practical exercises, ensuring you have the opportunity to reinforce your learning and test your understanding. You'll receive feedback on your work from an experienced editor.
Who the course is for
This course is for you if you want to hone your news sense, refresh or build your practical news skills, and put reporting theory into practice in a real-time, interactive news conference. If you are interested in features, you might like our Features Writing Essentials course.
We currently only offer this course as bespoke training for teams. It can be delivered remotely or in your offices.
Get in touch using the button below to discuss times and dates for bespoke training.
Course Modules
What Makes News
What makes a news story
News sources and demographics
'Hard' and 'soft' news
Recognising fact and opinion
Knowing your audience
News Writing Basics
Story structure and the 5Ws
Writing a good introduction
Building out the body of the story
How and where to use quotes
Language usage in news
Interactive News Conference (6-hour sessions only)
Report from a mock press conference
Write up your story
Share and discuss your approach
Receive feedback on your copy
What our students say
What a great session we had on Communicating with Impact. Bridgid shared practical techniques to enhance and develop our communications skills so we can present and speak publicly or to senior stakeholders with confidence and impact. I speak for my whole team in highly recommending Bridgid Nzekwu if you are after effective and fun communication training.
The team is flexible, slick, well-resourced and overall simply first class. Their expertise and knowledge have been invaluable. I was delighted with our choice, so I’d have no hesitation in recommending them
PA Media Training were efficient, well organised and genuinely lovely people to deal with and, importantly for us, able to provide flexibility around our needs to create the bespoke training we required. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for further training or to recommend them to other organisations.
The small class sizes nurture a comfortable environment where everyone supports and learns from each other. The staff helped me hone in on my writing skills and develop the confidence to feel comfortable on camera.
Interested in this course?
Talk to the Press Association Academy team about dates, fees and bespoke options.