How to write a report: an example and recommendations

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

There are many genres in modern journalistic practice. One of the most popular and sought after is considered to be a reportage. It is he who is the first to be born after each socially significant event.

What is a reportage?

The definition of one of the most important concepts in the media can be found in any dictionary of journalistic terminology. Thus, the authors characterize the reportage as "material from the scene, distinguished by objectivity and efficiency." Its main goal is to create a "presence effect", to enable the viewer, listener or reader to see the situation through the eyes of a journalist.

Compositionally, the report consists of 3 parts.

1. Intro: a brief sketch of what is happening. Place and time, as well as a description of its participants. The introduction should be bright in order to attract attention and make you want to continue your acquaintance with the material.
2. Main part: information block. Characteristics of the event, dialogues with participants, descriptions of details that will help you better understand the essence of what is happening and feel your involvement in the story.
3. Ending: the author's impression, his thoughts and emotions, as well as the summarized rating of the episode.

The style of reporting may vary depending on the nature of the event. It can be a light description of the youthful atmosphere: “09:30. The sun has long risen, but our athletes do not even think of waking up. Are they so sure of their victory? If the event is more formal, it is necessary to withstand officialdom: “The evening was opened by the head of the organization. He thanked everyone in the audience and confessed that he had never delivered a speech in front of such an exquisite audience.”

Types of reporting

Eventful

The reason for creating this type of reportage is a bright and memorable event, incident or incident that attracted public attention. The “presence effect” is achieved through chronological sequence, indicating a clear time and place of what is happening, using details and vivid details.

Staging

The journalist becomes the main participant, and not a passive observer, if the ongoing action is staged by him. For example, a provocative street demonstration designed to see how people react to it. In this case, reporting from the scene is an example of a field media experiment.

Thematically educational

Events and processes in this type of reporting do not require operational coverage, the reader needs to fully reveal the new facets of society.

Actual

Represents a momentary response to what is happening. A current report is an example of material that requires special promptness: the sooner the public learns about an important event, the sooner they canreact to it.

Problem

Creating such a report, the journalist seeks not only to highlight the current event, but also to explore the social phenomena that caused it. This view requires the author's own reflection, analysis and evaluation.

How to write a problem report?

This view is also called analytical. In his work on a problematic report, the journalist first of all asks the question not “What?”, but “Why?” The basic is the search for the causes of certain social problems, unrest.

To write a problematic report, you first need to deal with all the components of the situation. Place, time, participants, chronology of events. Have similar stories happened before? Are there any statistics on this issue?

When the base is collected, you can start writing an article. A problem report is an example of journalistic material with mixed genre elements. The author actively uses sketches, factual information, expresses his opinion and gives his own forecasts of further events.

According to what scheme is such a report in the newspaper built? An example of an article plan: thesis (description of the situation and posing a problematic issue), arguments (the author explains the reasons for the issue of discussion, gives an interpretation of the facts, compares similar phenomena), conclusion (the result of understanding all the facts, assessing the level of their significance, designating one's position).

How to write a thematically informative report?

This journalisticThe material is divided into two subspecies: special and investigation. The first one requires the journalist to disclose a topical issue. You need to make sure that the chosen topic can really be classified as “special”. At the heart of the second is the process of obtaining information directly. A feature report is an example of how a journalist can expand their reader's horizons.

To create such material, the first step is to decide on the sphere of social life that will be covered. Then choose an aspect in it that can cause resonance.

Special attention should be paid to the way information is presented: active dialogues, constant movement and bright details will keep readers in a constant tone.

Often, in order to better understand what is happening, the authors change their profession for a while and are fully introduced into the process being studied. Such a thematically informative report is an example of the complete transformation of a journalist. The level of difficulty in this case increases several times.

How to write a topical report?

First, you should understand what falls under the key category of this concept? Relevance is the significance of something in the current situation. Based on the definition, such a report covers events “on the topic of the day” that occurred the evening before or directly on the day the material was created.

The main thing is efficiency. The author does not yet have time to assess the situation and form his own opinion, but he must highlight what happened. To do this, you need to have a large list of contacts, in which there is someone from whom you can immediately take a comment and find out the details.

A journalist must quickly find answers to many questions in order to prepare an up-to-date report. Example: what happened, where, when, with whom, why, and what would be the possible consequences?

Although the speed and pressure in such situations is off the scale, you need to prepare the publication quickly. When writing an article in the "reportage" genre, examples of texts from other authors can help create material quickly and efficiently. Thus, a journalist kills two birds with one stone: he writes relevant news both quickly and according to all the rules of the genre.

General guidelines for reporting

The shortest advice: the more relevant, brighter and more dynamic, the better. The reader should feel like a direct participant in the events, to the point that you can make him feel the force of a heavy wind at a winter rally in favor of stray animals or the seductive smell in a bakery that distributes free sweets to the homeless on the eve of the holidays.

Dialogues and descriptions of people's emotions, their own observations and thoughts about what is happening will add liveliness to the material.

Memorize a plan for how to write a report. Example: introduction (it’s night in Los Angeles, but no one sleeps. After all, it’s today that film critics will determine the best films of the past year. The favorites of the 87th Oscars ceremony have long been determined. This is …), the main part (although, as they say, it has become fashionable to give statuettes to young actors, venerablethe sharks of cinema are also sure of their victory…), conclusion (the drama on stage could well compete with what we saw on the screens…).

Mastering the reportage, examples of texts of this genre can be viewed on the pages of well-known printed publications. In the process of acquaintance with the works of other authors and constant practice, one develops his own unique style and individual manner of covering important events.