Gemma's Blog

For my Professional Writing Unit we explore different aspects of writing and the many forms it is presented. Before Christmas, our focus was placed on Journalism which included article and feature writing. As an exercise, we were asked to take a well known event and turn it into a news article for a specific publication. To give an accurate account of this event using a similar approach to tabloid newspapers journalists, I looked at articles from The Sun, News of the World and The Daily Mail.

The Sun 26^th December 2008

Mummy Mary – the Virgin

According to sources, last night Mary Colbourne, 15, from Nazareth gave birth to a boy in a stable round the back of a pub in Bethlehem. However, the teen pregnancy and the ‘crummy’ conditions this baby was born into are not as controversial as the way in which the newborn, Jesus, was claimed to be conceived.

“My baby does not have a biological father” – Mary revealed before she was whisked away to St Peter’s Hospital with baby Jesus. This bold statement left onlookers in shock. Amongst these spectators were shepherds who had left their flocks of sheep come to visit the baby, one of whom revealed that he had been given a sign to follow a bright star which was visible directly above the soiled stable which held this unusual event.

The buzz surrounding this newborn became even more perplexing when our reporter spoke to Joseph David, 27, who claims to be the baby’s father. “Mary and I are thrilled with our little Jesus.” This display of affection from David left us puzzled and intrigued as to whether this is a lack of communication between the acclaimed parents or if something much more serious.

The Bethlehem Police will soon be involved, considering the girls age and a maternity test will soon reveal the mystery behind baby Jesus, this could simply be another case of a drunken night leaving Mary without the child’s’ biological father, or could this be a scientific phenomenon that nobody expected.