Using the Inverted Pyramid to Write News Articles
Writing news articles isn't always
fun and sometimes it's downright tedious. The rules of journalism are complex,
leaving novice writers confused about how to move forward. The fact is,
however, that news articles are among the most popular, and you can learn to
write news articles using the "inverted pyramid" style of journalism.
The inverted pyramid is a journalism
tactic that describes how news information should be dispatched to the reader.
When you write a news article, you should know that your readers are usually
wanting to get the gist of "what happened", but may not have time to
read the entire article. That is why you use the inverted pyramid; it means
that readers will continue to look at your articles. While you don't have
to use the inverted pyramid style, it is a widely-accepted way to write news
articles and can actually improve your writing.
Essentially, the inverted pyramid
style means that you give the most important or interesting details first, and
then continue to dribble less-important information throughout the body of the
article. Ideally, you'll want to give the most important information in the
first paragraph, and save the least important information for last. This allows
the reader to digest the information in the order of most importance and to
move on to the next article if he or she is just browsing. Since news articles
are usually short anyway, this gives the reader the best of all worlds.
The first sentence of a news article
- called the "lead" - should answer the two most important questions
about the subject of your article: Who and What. The Who
is who your article is about - be it a person, a business or a place - and the What
is what happened to that person, business or place to make the story
newsworthy. Sometimes the Who and the What are obvious, while there will also
be times when you have to carefully select the most important subject to write
about.
For example, take a look at
Stephanie Guidry's AC news article Duane "Dog" Chapman Set to Be
Extradited to Mexico. Her first sentence reads like this:
"According to the Associated
Press, Duane "Dog" Chapman's request not be extradited to Mexico on
charges of deprivation of liberty has been denied."
In this opening sentence, Guidry
used the inverted pyramid to answer the Who and the What of the article. Who
is Duane "Dog" Chapman and What is his request not to be
extradited was denied. These are obviously the two most important facts to be
given in the article, and she started with them.
After that, Guidry goes on to
dribble out the less-important information of the article, just as the inverted
pyramid style suggests. She details the amount of bail that "Dog"
posted, his wife's quote and the information regarding the person whom he
brought back to the States with him. At the end, Guidry tells the reader who
"Dog" is and where he can be found on television.
When writing a news article, you'll
want to use the inverted pyramid to appeal to your readers. Not only will you
appear to be a professional journalist, but your readers will also get the
information they need right off the bat. News articles are often skimmed, and
if your readers can't find the information they want immediately, they will
likely search for a different source of information.
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