To develop a descriptive model of the newswriting process, a study used protocol analysis methodology (focusing on specific thinking and behavior related to task completion) to examine the writing processes of professional and student reporters writing in their natural work environment. The study employed verbal protocols--tape recording the writing process while the subject thought out loud. Eight professional reporters from seven different newspapers and five journalism students from different classes, who were selected as good writers, participated in the study. Subjects wrote 38 stories in 38 taping sessions averaging two hours in length, for a total of 70 hours of tape recordings of the newswriting process. Each subject was interviewed after stories were completed. Transcriptions of the follow-up interviews, in addition to writing session transcriptions, reporters' notes, and completed stories, were used for the analysis. The descriptive model, developed from these sessions and reflecting the actions that take place when the writer begins to write, indicated that the lead-writing task for news stories is an independent act which must be completed before the main text of the story is produced. Text production was a recursive, hierarchical set of tasks, in some ways similar to other composition models, but unique in the use of memory, editing, and lead writing. The model illustrates that the actual writing process is a complex set of many activities, all directed to the task of writing. (Six illustrations are included, and 24 references are attached.) (MM)