The basic purpose of news is to inform. The information should not be too biased, but should present facts about an event or subject. In order to write a news story you need to understand the five W’s about your topic: who, what, where, when and why. This will help you write a clear and concise story that will engage your readers. In addition, it is important to source your information and include quotes from people involved in the story. This adds credibility and allows the reader to form their own opinion about your topic.

What constitutes news can vary between societies, but generally a news article will involve a human element – the impact of an event on a person or group. Events that are unusual or outside of the usual will also be considered newsworthy. For example, a man who bites his dog is not usually considered newsworthy, but if that same animal kills a pig or cow, it will be newsworthy.

A typical news story will contain a lead statement that gives the overall topic of the article, followed by paragraphs that provide the background or context for the story. If the story is about a new product, for example, the writer will explain how it works and why it is better than existing products on the market.

It is important to keep in mind that although it is the job of a journalist to inform, they are still influenced by an internal system of beliefs and values, which they use to judge what is and is not newsworthy. Hence, the term “fake news” is often used to refer to stories that are not objective.

News is often written to entertain, but the entertainment is supposed to come from other sources – music and drama on radio and television, cartoons and crossword puzzles in newspapers. However, this does not mean that news cannot be amusing. In fact, a well-written comedy story can be as good as a news story on a serious subject.

A common mistake when writing news is to overdo the adjectives. The article should be informative, but not awash in superlatives like “brilliant,” “amazing” and “fantastic.” This can be distracting for the reader and gives the impression that the writer is trying to hard to impress.

It is essential to avoid adding your own opinion to a news article, but you should not be afraid to state what you think about an event when discussing it in the news. This can be done in the form of a comment or in an opinion piece that has its own headline. Generally, you should only include your own opinion if it is relevant to the article. Otherwise, let the facts speak for themselves. This will allow the reader to form their own opinion about the topic and engage with it. As a result, the reader will be more interested in reading the article. This is important to the success of any news article.