The Terrible Fate of Humpty Dumpty:

A newspaper articleAround the point that the police officers leave Mrs Dumpton to begin their investigations in the school, a new character appears in the play – Ross Webster a journalist. He will do his own interviews, adding to the information that the police uncover in the next few scenes.

We’d like you to create your own newspaper report based on some of the information that he gathers.

There are some basic rules: You can invent a few details if they’re not given in the play – the name of the school (Anytown Academy, Hillview High School, or whatever), the name of the waste-ground where the accident at the pylon takes place and you can also create one other person like Mrs Vickers or the Headteacher who has something to say about what happened – maybe the head of the electricity company who owns the pylon, or perhaps a local politician who thinks the pylon needs better protection around it. What you cannot do is make up a completely new story – Terry is not coming back as the leader of a zombie apocalypse to get his revenge on Stubbs and you’re not going to get an exclusive confession from any of the gang members about exactly what happened. You need to stick to the facts that Ross Webster (and maybe the police) have discovered in the story as much as possible.

Those facts are likely to include:

What we know about Terry – his age and any other facts that Ross Webster might have found out

What he know about his death – the time it happened and other details from Mrs Vickers (scene 9)

Anything the police might be willing to share with the media – looking for eye-witnesses, concerned that it may not have been an accidental death.

Ross Webster’s Notebook: You could start getting ready for this task by opening a file in your OneNote called ‘Ross Webster’s notebook’ and making a list of the information that he’s likely to have found out about Terry’s death already. He may already have been given some information by the police and he certainly knows where the Dumpton family live. Once you’ve read his interview with Mrs Vickers (scene 9) you’ll be able to add a lot more details to the notes and once he spoken to the Headteacher (scenes 14 and 15) you’ll be able to add even more.

Once you’ve got some notes organised – like Ross Webster – you’ll have to start thinking about writing your story and making it as interesting as possible. There are actually quite a lot of things you’ll need to consider because newspapers and journalists generally tell their stories three times when they’re writing an article. So let’s start with the basics of how a newspaper story is organised and then go on to look at some real front pages and the writing techniques journalists use in more detail. You’ll find the full text of the Edinburgh Evening News article (21/01/2021) – Killer Posed As The Postie – at the end of this file along with some questions to get you thinking about the language techniques journalists use.

Newspaper front pages tell the story three times

First of all - the headline.

The first way that a journalist will tell you the story is with the headline – this needs to be very brief, but also truthful and eye-catching. Compare the two headlines:

Accident at pylon

Schoolboy killed

Both of these are true – there was an accident and a schoolboy died – but you’ll hopefully agree that the second one sounds far more shocking and serious than the first one. An ‘accident’ could just be someone getting cut on barbed wire – whereas the word ‘killed’ in the second one tells us that this is just about as serious as it could get. Similarly, the word ‘schoolboy’ in the second one tells us that it was a young person with their whole life ahead of them which is also shocking. In contrast the headline ‘Accident at pylon’ could just be a story about a short-term power-cut where nobody died.

Secondly, the opening paragraph

The opening paragraph of a newspaper article is more detailed than the headline – but it is also generally a brief and accurate summary of the key events. For example:

Late on Tuesday evening reports were received that a schoolboy had been seriously injured on an electricity pylon in the waste ground beside Hillview Academy. Police and emergency teams rushed to the scene but the child was unfortunately found to be dead when they arrived.

You’ll see that lots of information is missing here – nothing about the frisbee or if he was on his own when the accident occurred – but hopefully you’ll agree that most of the main bits of the story are covered. A boy is dead and he died on an electricity pylon.

Finally, the main story

After the opening paragraph the article will tell the story for a third time in a lot more detail. It might include details from Mrs Vickers saying she saw a large flash before Terry died and it might include some extra information about Terry’s age, the Frisbee and the mystery of what actually happened. Later in the article there might be some comments from the Head teacher at Terry’s school or other people with a professional involvement in the story – a local politician maybe, or someone from the electricity company who operate the pylon. Bullying might be mentioned as one of the leads that the police are investigating – but its very unlikely that police officers would actually say out-right that a gang led by a boy called Stubbs are responsible for Terry’s death. The final lines of the article might ask for anyone with information to call a police phone line – or it might just be a statement from

someone like the Headteacher saying that her thoughts are with Terry’s family and that children in the school will be being offered support.

Now the hard bit – making it memorableHopefully all that sounds relatively simple: a headline, an opening paragraph that summarises the story and then the main article. However, journalists don’t just TELL the story briefly and accurately – they need to make it sensational in order to SELL newspapers or to convince readers that its worth finding out about and that often involves dramatic language and a number of special writing techniques.

First the headlines

Front page headlines often use three types of techniques to make them eye-catching – alliteration, sensational language and puns.

Alliteration is where the same letter gets used several times in a phrase or a sentence. Sometimes you’ll get alliteration in early reading books designed to help children recognised letters and word sounds – bubbly beer makes bumble bees burp beautifully – but in newspaper headlines its used to make information stand out and even shock us. A horrible accident in Thailand involving a UK family and an elephant had the headline:

Jumbo gores dad to death

The alliteration on the letter d really makes the final three words stand out. Additionally, the sensational language ‘gores’ also adds to the horror that’s being described since the word means ‘rips up’ rather than simply crushes. The word ‘jumbo’ might also be more effective than ‘elephant’ here since we often use it to mean something that’s massive – as in jumbo jet. So in no more than five words we have a really shocking idea of what took place in Thailand: a massive elephant brutally killing a father in front of his family. There’s nothing like the sweet innocence of burping bees in this bit of alliteration!

Sensational language is another part of newspaper headlines: words like shocking, horrific, fatal and crisis are used to make it clear to readers that something hugely serious has happened. Going back to the two examples we started with you’ll probably see that adding some of these words to them makes them much more effective:

Fatal accident at pylon

Schoolboy horrifically killed

Finally, puns are sometimes used – words with double meanings or a play on words. These are most often used in headlines for happy, unusual or positive stories but you might find a way of using one in a headline about Terry’s death. For example, we’ve all heard the phrase ‘Fruit and Veg’ – so when there was a story about a corner shop being held up by a man using a cucumber instead of a gun (I’m not joking!) the headline used was ‘Shoot and Veg.’ Similarly, when Sir Andy Murray won at

Wimbledon during the London Olympics after years of coming runner up the newspaper headlines were ‘Worth the wait in gold’ (see the alliteration there too) and ‘Jawsome’ (because he yelled so much with joy). The morning after Donald Trump was replaced as president of America by Joe Biden there were loads of puns on the front pages. The Daily Star painted Trump green and ran with the headline – the incredible sulk because he didn’t accept the fact he’d lost the election.

On the other hand, many papers loved the fact the JOE Biden sounds like GO – and ran headlines like Ready Steady, Joe - highlighting a new beginning for the leadership of America. One paper took this even further and used a bit of rhyme Don’s gone – Let’s go, Joe!

One paper even suggested that now Trump is no longer in power in America, Scotland should try to push him away from the properties and businesses he owns here (his assets) by investigating to find out if there have been any illegal or under-hand activities going on that he can be taken to court about – look at the alliteration in the sub-heading - Dig for dirty dealing and turf Trump of Scotland. The headline is very cheeky indeed – none of that in your own writing, please!

So … you’ll probably want to put quite a bit of thought into your own headlines!

Secondly, the opening paragraph

Puns and alliteration are really only used in the headline but the opening paragraph of your article should also make use of some sensational language. Adjectives like massive, horrific, terrifying might be used to add to the power of your descriptions. Going back to our earlier opening paragraph you’ll hopefully agree that adding some of these makes the writing more intense:

Late on Tuesday evening shocking reports were received that a schoolboy had been horrifically injured on an electricity pylon in the waste ground beside Hillview Academy. Police and emergency teams rushed to the scene but the child was tragically found to be dead when they arrived.

When you write your own opening paragraph try to make sure that you include at least two or three sensational words.

Finally, the main article

In the main article there are other things that you’ll probably want to include like statements from eye-witnesses and opinions that people have about Terry’s death. Some things will simply be factual – but other aspects of his death will be uncertain and possibly even unknown when you are writing the story. Use phrases like ‘… it is believed…’ , or ‘… some eye-witnesses have suggested…’ to make sure that you’re not saying things are absolute facts if Ross Webster couldn’t know for sure at the point when he’s writing his article.

Now you can get started…If you want to write a newspaper article using columns – that’s fantastic but don’t worry too much about the layout given that we’re doing this at home in lockdown. If you can include some sensational language and create a memorable headline - that’s far more important to us.

Similarly, if you want to create a picture to go with the story that would be fine – but its not really essential and we don’t want you spending time googling horrific images of children being electrocuted! No way. A picture of a pylon or some police ‘no not cross’ tape would be more than enough.

There’s no word length – but an introduction and some paragraphs describing what happened in more details (including eyewitness statements) isn’t likely to be done well with less than 250 words. Have a look at the article from the Edinburgh Evening News at the end of this file to see what we mean.

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Here’s, the full article from the Edinburgh Evening News:

Killer posed as the postieCity OAP slain in her own home after panic alarm snatched, court told.

A man allegedly posed as a postman to get into a 79 year old woman’s home and murder her. It is claimed.

Martin Stewart is said to have killed Margaret Grant, pictured here, at her flat in Restalrig Road last January 24. The 40 year old faced the accusation during a hearing yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow.

Lawyers for the police alledge that Stewart ‘pretended’ to Margaret that he was a postman and had a parcel to deliver. He is said to have got inside the flat before attacking the OAP.

This includes claims that Stewart demanded cash, pulled a panic alarm from Margaret’s neck, threatened and pushed the pensioner as well as ransacking her home.

He also allegedly stole money, jewellery and the panic alarm. Margaret is said to have later died at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Stewart faces 13 other charges including claims he had robbed Margaret previously. The criminal charges from the police state that he turned up at the flat ‘under the pretence of a lawful purpose’ on various occasions between October 5, 2016 and December 31, 2017.

Stewart allegedly entered taking cash and a purse. Among other charges it is alleged he targeted other Edinburgh pensioners either stealing from them or planning to commit theft.

His lawyer entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Stewart, who appeared by video link. He will appear before the court again in April.

There are some questions for you to think about on the next page

Some things to think about after reading the article:

1. Look at the headline, the subheading and the first paragraph – how many examples of sensational language can you find?

2. Now look over the rest of the article – what extra information do you find there that was left out of the headline and the opening paragraph?

3. The word ‘alleged’ is used several times – it means that the police are making claims that the court will investigate. Journalists need to be careful that they don’t say that Stewart is guilty before the court decides if he actually did what he is accused of doing. Can you find any other words or phrases that show the journalist is being careful about what they put into the article?

4. Later in the article the word ‘ransacking’ is used – it means trashing a home when you’re looking for something valuable and it’s a great example of sensational language. Can you find any other examples of sensational language in the main part of this article?

5. Finally, the whole article is only 250 words long. If the journalist had added a comment about how nice Margaret was from one of her neighbours or a statement from the company who maintains the panic alarms saying how shocked they were that this had happened it would obviously been a lot longer. Hopefully this will give you good idea of how to do an article about Terry and his death.