The inverted pyramid will help you organize your news writing, and the story-grading criteria list identifies the main attributes of a well-written news story, so that you can build and perfect these aspects of your writing. Also, paying attention to ledes by professional journalists will of course help you in crafting your own. Moreover, the Associated Press and Chicago Tribune remind us with their values statements of our ethical commitment to accuracy and professionalism in reporting. Toward developing the writing, the Reporting Plan & Checklist helps you organize elements of a story before you pursue it, manage time to meet the deadline, and then review your reporting for accuracy, while the Background Research handout helps develop better questions and gather interesting facts to enrich your reporting.
