Inverted Pyramids

Know-how Inverted pyramids
by Kiron Kasbekar

News writing should follow the inverted pyramid format. This means that you start the article with the conclusion or the most important part of the story. Then follow with the next most important part of the story. And end with the background, or with detailed facts. This ensures that the reader gets the gist of what you have to say even if he stops reading after the first paragraph or two.

For example, start with: "Company X has decided to postpone its plans to enter the IT business." Follow this with the most important supporting information, e.g., "The reason for this decision is the downturn in the IT industry." And then provide important related information, e.g., "The company has decided to review this decision in six months."

Follow this up with something about the plans, including, say, the sum it had planned to invest in the new business. Add something about the latest meeting of the board in which the decision was taken, and report if there were different views on the subject, or whether alternatives were considered.

Only after that start giving the background, for example, a brief analysis of the downturn in the IT industry, and then, perhaps, some related information about how other companies too have taken similar decisions. You could also provide some data on the current businesses of Company X.

This writing format is known as the inverted pyramid because it turns on its head the conventional, essay form of writing (where you start with a single point, and then expand as you go down, with some important stuff coming lower down, and with a conclusion at the end). Newspapers use the inverted-pyramid format because readers can stop anywhere in the middle of a report and still get its most important parts.

There are two ways in which you can break up your story into its component parts.

• The best way is to begin with a plan for several pieces, and write according to the plan. This is the efficient way of doing it, but there's nothing sacrosanct about it.
  
• You could try writing the entire matter in one piece, and then break it up. This is useful sometimes when you are starting with an idea rather than a clear plan. Only, don't expect that you, as a writer, will write one long single piece and somebody on the desk will knock it into different web pages. That's being unfair to the people on the desk. It's much easier for you to do it than for someone else.

An important thing to remember is that boxes (or related stories) must stand on their own. Don't assume that the reader will necessarily have the time or inclination to go through all the different parts in order to see how they patch together.

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