Writing in the pyramid style - state everything up front
Summary
- In the very beginning, get to the point: explain the 'who, what, when, where and why' in the first paragraph, then develop the story in the remaining sections
Details
- This is the newspaper style. When newspaper editors want to shorten writing they cut sections off the bottom, which will be the least important information in a pyramid style piece.
References
Quotes
Writing in the pyramid style means getting to the point at the top, putting the “who, what, when, where, and why” in the first paragraph, and developing the supporting information under it. Newspapers use pyramid style because they are in the business of getting facts to readers as quickly as possible and because of the way news stories must be edited for print. When a newspaper editor has a seven-inch story that he or she has to put into a six-inch hole in the newspaper, that editor doesn’t run through the story with a pencil looking for useless adverbs or sentences that can be rewritten. He or she simply cuts an inch off the bottom. That is why each inch of a pyramid-style story should be less important than the inch that came before it. You should use pyramid style for any short report and for any story that might be cut. And when you do, don’t put anything in paragraph 12 that the reader must know in order to understand paragraph 7.