Chapter 5: News Writing Basics Show In general, news stories are organized using the inverted pyramid style, in which information is presented in descending order of importance. This allows the audience to read the most crucial details quickly so they can decide whether to continue or stop reading the story. From an editing perspective, using the inverted pyramid style makes it easier to cut a story from the bottom, if necessary. Invented more than a century ago, the inverted pyramid style remains the basic formula for news writing (Scanlan, 2003).  It is important to note that some news stories do not strictly follow the inverted pyramid style, although the lead for a hard news piece always does. Furthermore, not everyone in the journalism field embraces the style; some detractors believe it is an unnatural way to engage in storytelling and present news to the public. Yet, proponents believe it is an efficient way to organize and share information in a fast-paced society (Scanlan, 2003). Therefore, it’s important for students to learn the style; one good way to do so is to regularly read hard news stories and pay attention to how the leads are structured. The lead (also known as the summary lead) and the body of the inverted pyramid style are discussed in the next sections.
There are a few basic rules for writing and structuring any news story. If you’re accustomed to other types of writing – such as fiction – these rules may seem odd at first. But the format is easy to pick up, and there are very practical reasons why reporters have followed this format for decades. The inverted pyramid is the model for news writing. It simply means that the heaviest or most important information should be at the top – the beginning – of your story, and the least important information should go at the bottom. And as you move from top to bottom, the information presented should gradually become less important. In the age of internet news, many online news outlets have tweaked this format to align with search engines. But the basic premise remains the same: Get the most important information at the top of the news story. Let’s say you’re writing a story about a fire in which two people are killed and their house is destroyed. In your reporting, you’ve gathered a lot of details including the victims’ names, the address of their home, what time the blaze broke out, and possibly what officials believe may have caused the fire. Obviously, the most important information is the fact that two people died in the fire. That’s what you want at the top of your story. Other details – the names of the deceased, the address of their home, when the fire occurred – should certainly be included. But they can be placed lower down in the story, not at the very top. And the least important information - things like what the weather was like at the time, or the color of the home - should be at the very bottom of the story (if included at all). The other important aspect of structuring a news article is making sure the story follows logically from the lede (this is a deliberate misspelling of "lead," which prevented confusion among typesetters in the early days of newspapers). So if the lede of your story focuses on the fact that two people were killed in the house fire, the paragraphs that immediately follow the lede should elaborate on that fact. You wouldn't want the second or third paragraph of the story to discuss the weather at the time of the fire, for example. Details such as the people's names, their ages and how long they had lived in the home would all be important to include immediately following the lede sentence. The inverted pyramid format turns traditional storytelling on its head. In a short story or novel, the most important moment – the climax - typically comes about two-thirds of the way through, closer to the end. But in news writing, the most important moment is right at the start of the lede. The inverted pyramid format was developed during the Civil War. Newspaper correspondents covering that war’s great battles relied on telegraph machines to transmit their stories back to their newspapers’ offices. But often saboteurs would cut the telegraph lines, so reporters learned to transmit the most important information – General Lee defeated at Gettysburg, for instance – at the very start of the transmission to make sure it got through successfully. The use of the inverted pyramid also grew in popularity because as the news cycle grew shorter with the advent of television and online news, readers' attention spans grew shorter as well. Now, there's no guarantee readers will continue to the end of a story, so getting the most important information at the top of the story is more important than ever.
The inverted pyramid starts with what the user most needs to know. Order the rest of the page from most to least important information.
The basic structure of the inverted pyramid is:
The most important idea comes first or ‘above the fold’. This is the top part of a screen or a newspaper, where people can see the main idea at a glance. This structure helps users scan content on any device. It also helps optimise the page for search engines.
An inverted pyramid is a structure for a piece of content: important detail comes first Start with what the user most needs to knowTo structure your content as an inverted pyramid:
For long-form content, use a summary or a list of recommendations in the preliminary pages. This helps people read the main information with ease. Design pages based on how the user scansPeople start at the top of a page and decide within seconds whether to go past the initial view. The headline and the first few lines provide the main reason for staying (or leaving). As people read through the content, they might also scan pictures or other headings, but they could also stop reading at any time. The inverted pyramid works because people pay more attention when they first see the content. Their interest tends to wane in the middle, and sometimes they never reach the end. Journalists know that’s how readers behave and structure content accordingly. To structure a paragraph using the inverted pyramid, start with a topic sentence. Use the rest of the paragraph to explain the topic sentence. Release notesThe digital edition canvasses different types of structure. It promotes the use of the inverted pyramid for digital content. The sixth edition and the Content Guide were silent on the inverted pyramid.
Avieson J (1980) Applied journalism in Australia, Deakin University, Geelong. Brech J (18 July 2013) ‘Inverted pyramid style’, Web Wise Wording, accessed 30 May 2020. Chandler D and Munday R (2020) ‘Inverted pyramid’, A dictionary of media and communication, 3rd edn, Oxford University Press. Dixon JC and Bolitho B (2005–2019) Report writing, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra. Fessenden T (15 April 2018) ‘Scrolling and attention’, Nielsen Norman Group, accessed 30 May 2020. Schade A (1 February 2015) ‘The fold manifesto: why the page fold still matters’, Nielsen Norman Group, accessed 30 May 2020. Schade A (11 February 2018) ‘Inverted pyramid: writing for comprehension’, Nielsen Norman Group, accessed 30 May 2020.
This page was updated Thursday 2 September 2021. |
When writing a news article using the inverted pyramid structure the least important information should be placed?
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