Sample news report generated from “The Lady of Shalott” verb group in headline in headline provides mini present tense Corpse disturbs royal party summary of story & aims to grab attention Festivities at King Arthur’s palace were disturbed last Participants in headlines expressed in short noun night when a boat containing the dead body of a lead paragraph provides groups beautiful young woman mysteriously turned up at the outline answer to questions: Who? What? Where? When? nearby river dock. The body is thought to be that of In this case, the headline is in details of time & place can Active Voice & the opening be provided in: Lady Judith Percy of Shalott but a positive clause in Passive Voice  Qualifiers in noun identification has yet to be made. groups (‘at King Arthur’s palace’) The words “The Lady of Shalott” were written around  Circumstances within the prow of the boat and the city watch believe that it subsequent paragraphs add clauses (‘last night’) more details on the 4 x Ws plus floated down from the Island of Shalott which is five How? & Why?  supporting dependent clauses (‘when a boat . . . miles upstream from Camelot. The island is the site river dock’) of a small four-towered castle which is the ancestral paragraphs in news stories tend to be short – 1 to 3 home of the Percy family. sentences verb groups in body of story mainly in past tense - but not Mystery surrounds the castle and its inhabitants. It all appears that Lady Judith was the sole resident of the modality should indicate lack contrastive conjunction of certainty when the facts are ‘but’ signals that the next castle but she had not been seen in public for several not definite, e.g. ‘It appears that . . .’ clause will not be quite what years. Some locals believe that some sort of curse was anticipated was on the place. commas used to mark off name with indirect speech, the Thomas Holfast, the city sheriff, said that the cause of or title, e.g. ‘Thomas Holdfast, saying verb projects another the city sheriff, . . . clause death would not be known until an autopsy had been

completed but at this stage the authorities are treating Saying verbs (verbal the matter as suspicious. Processes) used to report what key figures said – either as the final paragraph of a news story is not really a Well known Knight of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot,  indirect speech (reporting the gist of the message) or conclusion such as is found in was one of the first of the royal entourage on the many other text types  direct speech (quoting scene. “She has a lovely face,” he said when asked exact words) about the appearance of the dead woman.

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Rudyard Kipling’s advice about journalism

I kept six honest serving men; They taught me all I knew. Inverted I called What and Where and When pyramid And Why and How and Who. Info arranged from most to least important