Most news stories are written in a traditional form it puts most important details first. The form is called an INVERTED PYRAMID. It begins with a terse/short opening paragraph called LEAD that summarizes the principal items of a news event.
The second paragraph and each succeeding paragraph contain secondary or supporting details in order of decreasing importance. NB All the paragraphs of the story contain newsworthy information, but each paragraph is less vital than the one before it.
The writing form puts the punch of a story at the beginning.
This writing form is different from the writing form used for novels, short stories, drama and some news features, where an author begins with background and works to a climax.
Guideline for using the Inverted Pyramid
1. Avoid a “buried lead”.
The ingredients of an inverted pyramid are the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW of news event. For example:
X“Police Chief John Jones discussed Riversdale crime problem with interested town’s people at a meeting Monday night. Jones agreed to meet with residents who have grown increasingly concerned about the safety of their neighbors’. The Chief said there were more serious crimes reported in the last 12 months in Riverdale than during any year in the city’s history”
“Police Chief John Jones said Monday night that there were more serious crimes reported in Riverdale last year than during any 12 months in the city’s history” (Anderson and Itule 1984)
2. Keep the lead as brief as possible:
If you can do it in 25 words or fewer, fine, but never write a lead with more than 35 words. The writer should not have attempted to put two ideas into one sentence.
Effective Leads:
“ZIMBABWE Prime Minister Morgarn Tsvangirai warned SADC yesterday that is has two weeks to settle the pending issues in the Global Political Agreement among the Main Political parties”.
3. Keep all sentences as simple as possible:
Trim superfluous or hard-to-understand words. Do not clutter sentences with un-necessary adjectives, advertisements or subordinate Clauses.
4. Write in an active voice
(Subject acting upon object) rather than passive voice (subject is acted upon).
-Active voice is considered more direct and vigorous.
Lead:
“Chicago firefighters battled dense smoke for nearly six hours Saturday to bring a multi-alarm blaze in a downtown frozen foods storage building under control.
WHO……Firefighters
WHAT….Battle dense smoke in a multi-alarm blaze
WHEN….Saturday
WHERE...Downtown Chicago
WHY……To control a fire
(Anderson and Itule 1984:19)
NB: Hard News uses INVERTED PYRAMID as well as SOFT NEWS use literary lead
Champagne glass
The style takes a similar form to the Inverted Pyramid with the first top/ first half of the story containing a strong lead and all the important facts.
There is a strong transition to a chronological retelling of the story from beginning to end
The style ends with a great kicker
It is important to give your readers a “reward” for staying with you for the whole story.
Complex events are simplified in narrative order and it keeps the story in context
NB The only problem though is that this kind of story is much harder to edit.
Stack of block
This style takes the form of a lead followed by several distinct and separate sections and a strong ending. The advantage of grouping information into specific sections is that it allows for easier explanation and helps readers remember the major points and explanations.
The major disadvantage is that a reader has to scan an entire story to get all the points.
Editing is easy and less important information can be removed without the rest of the story not being affected
Anecdote and nut graph
It can lead the reader easily into difficult subjects and complex analyses.
Story written under this style starts with a long soft lead.
The paragraph following the SOFT LEAD is called the “NUT GRAPH”.
Nut Graph tells the reader what the story is all about (ie) it gives essential facts which show why the story is so important
The style takes a similar form to the Inverted Pyramid with the first top/ first half of the story containing a strong lead and all the important facts.
There is a strong transition to a chronological retelling of the story from beginning to end
The style ends with a great kicker
It is important to give your readers a “reward” for staying with you for the whole story.
Complex events are simplified in narrative order and it keeps the story in context
NB The only problem though is that this kind of story is much harder to edit.
REFERENCES
Anderson D.A and Itule B.D (1984) Contemporary News Writing. New York. USA, Random House.
Brooks et al (1998) News Reporting and Writing. USA. St Martins Press.
Day (2000) Ethics in Media Communications; Cases and Controversies 3rd Edition. Belmont, CA.Wadsworth.
Fry,D.(2009) Champagne Glass http://donfry.wordpress.com/2009/06/24champagne-glass/Accessedon20/08/12
Greer G (1999) A New introduction to Journalism . South Africa. Cape Town . Juta
Hohenburg J (1976) The professional Journalists Fourth Edition. London. University of Kansas.
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