![]() Text organized by topic or chronologically.Īcademic: Five-paragraph essay or an extended version of the essay: Introduction and context, middle organized by topic, acknowledgement of counter-argument, conclusion. Feature and longer explanatory stories might start with a vignette or scene-setter. Hard news is usually written with a summary paragraph at the top and then information in order of decreasing importance (inverted pyramid). Journalistic: Several forms depending on the type of story. Longer quotations indented as a text block. Source may or may not be included in the text itself. In-text parenthetical citation or super-script notation. Quotations are rarely longer than two sentences.Īcademic: Source of information is always included in footnotes, endnotes or works cited page. Journalistic: Attribution is included in the same sentence as the direct or indirect quotation (Smith said, she acknowledged), usually at the end of the sentence. This is followed by several sentences that explore the topic. One-sentence transitions to change topics.Īcademic: First sentence introduces the topic (topic sentence). Direct quotations get their own paragraphs. Journalistic: In news stories, a sentence or two long. Active voice.Īcademic: Longer sentences with clauses often necessary to get across more complicated ideas. Journalistic: Short, simple declarative sentences. Here are what I see as the major differences: Sentences ![]() I teach in a journalism program, so I'm often answering this question from the opposite perspective, helping students make the transition from academic prose to journalistic writing. You should also keep in mind that your job is merely the inform the audience and present a balanced viewpoint it is not your job to advocate for one side or the other. Seuss but it should be easily read by an educated 10th or 11th grade high school student. Journalistic writing should be simpler and more accessible to the general public than academic writing. If the important bit is at the end, there's a good chance it'll just get cut or never even be read. So when it comes time to chop your article to fit they aren't going to read the whole damn thing and edit it to make sense - they're just going to lop off as much stuff as they need to off the end assuming you've placed the most important stuff at the top. Two, Copy editors realize they have limited space, especially in print. If you "bury the lede", the reader will stop reading before they get the most important information. The reason for this top-heavy style difference is twofold: One, readers of newspapers and magazines (this also applies to web) will generally stop reading after a few paragraphs. One other big difference is that instead of putting a nice summary conclusion at the end that neatly wraps everything up, like an academic paper, your journalistic article will simply stop at the end when you've run out of useful information. This tactic is useful for academic writing but it's antithetical to journalistic writing. If you've ever heard the phrase "buried the lede", that's what happens when you lead with interesting but less important information and the stuff of primary importance is 'buried' deep inside the article. If you read nothing but the lede you will still know the who, what, when and where of the story.Īfter the lede you follow up with the how and -maybe- the why and other information of secondary and tertiary importance. The lede should be a paragraph that's so dense it could choke a horse. The 'meat' of the article will almost always be in the first paragraph, called the lede. In journalistic writing you write in what's called the inverted pyramid style. ![]() The 'meat' of the discussion will generally be in the middle or towards the end. In other words: You tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, you tell them, and then you tell 'em what you told them. In academic writing you generally introduce a topic by presenting a thesis or a hypothesis, then you lay out the premise of the discussion, then you discuss the topic and then review the discussion. ![]() Well, having been a Social Science major and a Journalism minor who has written several academic papers and worked for a variety of newspapers and magazines here is the difference for me. ![]()
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