Column Writing: P. Bsed Iv-A

COLUMN
WRITING
By : Rojas, Xandra
P.
BSEd IV-A
• Columns are the most personal of all
newspaper writing. They have a very
personal appeal, an authoritative influence,
and very useful contribution to make in
spreading news and opinions.
• They’re written to inform, to influence, or to
entertain readers.
• They’re high in reader-interest for they
stimulate public discussion of the day’s
affairs.
VARIETIES OF COLUMNS
Round-about-school and community columns
Discussive articles
Columns on various topics
Food-for-thought Columns
Feature columns
Humor columns
How-to-do-it columns
Exchange Columns
Critical Report Columns
Book Reviews
PURPOSE OF THE COLUMN
• The main purpose of the column is to inform,
interpret, and to a large degree, to fiscalize.
• To explain the news. The columnist has to

explain their significance and consequence
by:
a. Giving the background of an event
b. Determining whether a certain event is
an isolate case or part of the pattern
c. Pointing out how the event will affect
or not affect his readers.
d. Pooling together and assessing

comments of readers from the different
segments of society.
• To entertain the readers

QUALIFICATIONS OF A GOOD COLUMNIST
1. Ability to write good English or Filipino,

whichever is his medium.
2. Originality, creative ability, and imagination.
3. Writing skill, a forceful, flexible style.
4. Ability to observe keenly.
5. Clear, logical thinking.
6. Wide background.
7. Resourcefulness.
8. Have a sense of fairness.
9. Sense of humor.
A columnist.....
• Informs the reader of what he may not know
• “Forms” or helps to form public opinion

when he comments with his logic, humor, or
emotion on an issue of the day.
• Features news that papers may have

forgotten to report.
• As an interpreter, the columnist condenses
the main news into clear, logical, and
effective sentences to emphasize the meat
of the story so as to form opinion.
• As a fiscalizer, the columnist acts as an arbiter.
• He gives inside information on what

people do not know, of things they are not
privy to, and of secret doings that are
hidden from public view.
SOURCES OF MATERIALS
• Current news
• Observations
• Interviews
• Commendable projects
• People researches
• Investigations
FORMS OF WRITING
USED IN COLUMNS
• the columnist is free to use any

form of writing. He may use the
essay or the story form; on certain
occasions, he may even use verse.
KINDS AND TYPES OF
COLUMNS
• According to purpose:
1.Editorial column
- any personal column founded on the
editorial page.
- makes use of humor as a vehicle in
driving the column’s message.
- considered as the highest expression
of press freedom in the Philippines.
2. Readers Column
- comments sent in by the readers are placed.
-some newspapers call it “Letters to the
Editor” or “Dear Sir”.
3. Business Column
- contains materials about economy, trade
commerce and industry
4. Sports Column
- deals exclusively about sports.
5. Art Column
- deals mostly on painting, architecture,
flower arrangement, paper mache,
ikebana, and the like.
6. Women’s Column
-concerns itself about the latest fashion,
beauty tips and anything about homemaking.
7. Entertainment Column
- all about music, theater, cinema, and the
people involved in them.
8. New products and inventions

- a science paper usually has a column
about the latest products and inventions,
and the researches being conducted by
some prominent scientists
9. Personality
- play up a famous person, his significant
achievements, his activities, dreams, and
ambitions.
10. Reviews
-review of an article, a book, a movie, a
drama or a painting.
According to
content
1. The “opinion” column
Resembles an editorial in form but, in
contrast with the editorials impersonal and
anonymous approach, carries the personal,
stamp of the writers own ideas.
2. The hodge-podge column
Where the author lumps together odds
and ends of information, a poem here,
an announcement there, a pointed
paragraph, a modernized proverb, a
joke, or an interesting question.
3. The essay column
Is a legacy from a more leisurely age
when writers could seat and scribble an
muse in light or purple prose.
4. The gossip column
Caters to the interest of human beings.
5. The dopesters column
Written by the columnist who also
has his eye to the keyhole but with a
more serious purpose.
TIPS
• Don’t be imitative of the style and
techniques of known columnists. Try your
own methods.
• Go everywhere for facts and materials.
• Study and interpret rather than moralize.
• Apply all the principles of good writing.
• Have intriguing titles for your columns

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COLUMN

• To explain the news. The columnist has to

d. Pooling together and assessing

• To entertain the readers

1. Ability to write good English or Filipino,

• “Forms” or helps to form public opinion

• Features news that papers may have

• As a fiscalizer, the columnist acts as an arbiter.

• He gives inside information on what

• the columnist is free to use any

8. New products and inventions

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