What is journalism?, where to start?, how is journalistic judgement constructed?, what are the basic tools to approach reality from a journalistic point of view?. These are some of questions meant to be answered in this manual. A work that aims to open doors into this fascinating profession and to stimulate the understanding and practice of journalism among first year students in Communication Studies. A theoretical review is proposed on the basic notions of news writing and approach, but from a practical perspective. Being an introductory manual, this piece is not intended as a first step in the journalism study but as a starting point and interest stimulator to deepen the search for tools leading to top-notch journalism, adjusted to challenges brought about by a time of transformation.