The Hindu Business Line : Start with end and end in the middle

Journalists do not so much write articles as stories. Sage insight, that is, from Allan Bell, cited in Journalism: Principles and Practice, by Tony Harcup, from Vistaar (www.indiasage.com). Thus, while the fairytale starts with `once upon a time', the news story begins with, as Bell would say, "Fifteen people were injured today when a bus plunged... "

Harcup explains: "Traditional stories start at the beginning and continue to some sort of resolution at the end. But news stories start with the end and often end in the middle." So, what you read are `a non-chronological order' and `recycling through various time zones'. There is no need to round off the news story; you can finish it in `mid-air', more because "many stories are ongoing", and what the newspaper gives is but "a snapshot taken at deadline time".

To experienced journalists, a story can write itself! How? "It is such a good story that, having established the intro or the top line, the rest flows almost effortlessly from the notebook to the finished product."

Journalists already have potential stories in their head, alerts Harcup. Don't be surprised, therefore, if many news stories appear to be "rewrites of ancient myths in contemporary settings."

Important lessons.

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