Finally the news section is free for everyone to post to without the approval of admins. The staff of DA have been gracious enough to trust us with supplying our own news in hopes that it would make the News Section a valuable resource to check daily, insted of the one or two stories a week we might check out otherwise.

With this comes deviants who are eager to supply the rest of us with news but may not know how to effectively communicate it.

I've decided to write a few ways that might help deviants organize the information they have in a news story. I was taught journalism by a former staff member of the LA times and I've worked freelance for my college and local newspaper.

-News is facts and information
Your job as a reporter is to report facts and the opinions of others who are involved in the story and to keep your personal opinion out of it. When you start adding your personal opinion it's called "editorializing" and that's more suited in a personal comment under the news story or in a journal or forum. If you can express yourself in a more academic tone and avoid sentences like "this really sucks" then your story might be a good fit in the editorial category.

-Proper grammer and spelling
Not only does it make it easier to read but it also helps curb confusion for those deviants who call English their second language and may who enter it into a translator.

-The article quote
The simplest way to post news is to find a story that's important and to quote it. Copy and paste the first paragraph or two into quotes and then post a link for the full story at the bottom. This is a great way to post stories from credible news sources like news websites or press releases.

-Tutorials
Now on DA most tutorials would suffice on a journal or forum however it might be worth posting in the news if you can include links to up-to-date information on other sites, or other recent newsworthy developments. You can write a paragraph or two about the problem or scenario and then write the information with bulletpoints or in paragraph form.

-inverted pyramid
The inverted pyramid is a well worn style of journalistic writing. You start off with the most important facts then spread out to include other supporting facts and background. This is great for artist profiles since you can write about their most recent accomplishment, perhaps a gallery show, then continue to write about their style and background. This is also good for group contest and events where you can write about the contest or event and then continue to write about the background of your group or club.

This is just a little bit of general information, but I hope it helps the news section become more concise and informative and motivates more people to find relevant news and share it.