Good tips needed for wrinting a newpaper article.?

Hi im doing a project where we need to create a 1 page newspaper article on an aborignal footballer, ive choosen to do mine on Mark Williams for Hawthorn. any tips on questions i could 'ask' him?

Good tips needed for wrinting a newpaper article.?
whether he has always had a passion for football?


does he have any other interests?


how much training does he do?


..... etc
Reply:Don't count on him providing the information needed for an interesting article.


The best tip I can give you is to do your research. Find out about this guy from other sources like the Internet. Talk to other people who know him first. This is where you will find the angle you want to pursue. It is imperative that you know more than just who you will be writing about. You need to know what. You probably won't get a second chance to ask questions.


Once you have this information...., the right questions to ask should be obvious.
Reply:make sure to use your thesaurus for impressive words for your impressions of your subject.
Reply:are you really going to interview him? Well I guess you should cover all the conventional questions that have to do with sports and football games, teams etc, and then you can ask about how being aboriginal has made his experience unique or different, harder or easier, how his mob sees him, and you can ask also what he thinks about Rudd's grand apology tomorrow. You can ask questions on how his upbringing brought him to where he is, and what he thinks about aboriginal sports people in general.
Reply:Inverted Pyramid. Start with all recent important information like recent notable games, meet-and-greets, championships and then work backwards to the biographical information.
Reply:The difference between "good" news reporting and the stuff you get bored of, in local rags, is POINT OF VIEW!





It is not sufficient to write a factual article. Anybody can do that!





Your clue, in this case is "aboriginal". The factual story, in this case, could be related to stats on how many aboriginal footballers actually make it to the higher reaches of Australian Leagues. Arising from such a slant, you could then "ask" two questions, to give the article "bite":





What factors have you had to overcome to realise your football ambitions? What has HELPED you achieve your ambitions, so far? (other than talent)





Then round it off with the obvious trite question: What is your greatest football ambition?





This should satisfy the crusading public and the shallower readers of first and last paragraphs. The headline should be taken from one of the questions.





Just make sure that, whatever your point of view, expressed in the article, might be, make sure you are consistent in that viewpoint throughout.