News Writing: The art of storytelling

.Take this course on Desktop or Mobile. For the best mobile experience, download the EdCast app for free on iOS and Android and use team name: thomsonfoundation.edcast.com.​

Email us at journalismnow@thomsonfoundation.org if you experience any technical difficulties.

Course overview

This course is designed to teach you how to write news stories in an effective and engaging way using techniques employed by Ewen MacAskill and other journalists around the world. Ewen will teach you when and how to go beyond the inverted pyramid model of storytelling to make your stories stand out and to make you a better story-teller.

This is a first of a three-course series on news writing. In courses 2 and 3, Ewen will take you through more advanced techniques and the art of news analysis.

At the end of this course you will be able to:

• Tell a story using the Inverted Pyramid style.

• Write a news story in simple, clear language.

• Use a drop intro.

• Humanise a story.

• Provide context to a story.

• Appreciate the value and importance of going to the scene.

Meet your Instructors

Ewen MacAskill,

An award winning journalist, Ewen has worked with news organisations around the world for almost 50 years mostly as a reporter. He spent 22 years at The Guardian, writing about just about anything but mainly politics and foreign affairs. He was the paper’s Washington bureau chief. He has won various awards, including a Pulitzer and an Emmy. 

Joining Ewen is a team of experts contributing thoughts, advice and insights: