Inverted Pyramid Writing

• “Internet readers prefer to read articles in an extreme journalistic style: the most important information first, and the details later.”
• (Last modified on: Apr. 24 at: 1:34 am. EST)
  We are normally accustomed to reading articles in chronological order - information generally builds and develops until we reach a conclusion. Internet readers have short attention spans, which means you want to start your articles with the conclusion as the introduction.

• Usage studies show that internet readers don't like scrolling, prefer scanning, and rarely finish reading articles. If they can't find the gist of your story fast enough, they will lose interest and go somewhere else.
• Like newspapers, readers want to see and read all the headlines first. Starting with a “summary lead” or conclusion means that your reader can leave the article at any point and still understand it, even if they don't yet know all the details.
• Within the first paragraph, the reader should be able to determine the purpose of the article, what the article is describing, and who is involved.
• Inverted pyramid writing helps the writer to prioritize facts, which encourages fast, concise writing. Instead of narrating a story, you'll be reporting facts.

An Example of Inverted Pyramid Writing

• Below is a newspaper article published by the New York Herald on April 15, 1865, about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It was a telegram written by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Out of many accounts, this one in particular was chosen to run on the front page of many papers. Note that ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ and ‘how’ are all addressed in the first paragraph.
• This evening at about 9:30 p.m. at Ford's Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathburn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President.
• The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre.
• The pistol ball entered the back of the President's head and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal.
• The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now dying.
• About the same hour an assassin, whether the same or not, entered Mr. Seward’s apartment and under pretense of having a prescription was shown to the Secretary’s sick chamber. The assassin immediately rushed to the bed and inflicted two or three stabs on the chest and two on the face. It is hoped the wounds may not be mortal. My apprehension is that they will prove fatal.
• The nurse alarmed Mr. Frederick Seward, who was in an adjoining room, and he hastened to the door of his father’s room, when he met the assassin, who inflicted upon him one or more dangerous wounds. The recovery of Frederick Seward is doubtful.
• It is not probable that the President will live through the night.
• General Grant and his wife were advertised to be at the theatre this

• (The story cuts off here.)

Technical Breakdown of this Page and its Writing Style

• The first and most obvious thing is that every article needs a descriptive title, which is in this case, “Inverted Pyramid Writing.”
• The next subsection is a “summary lead,” which begins with a tag line that summarizes the entire article in one sentence by answering:

• Who: Internet users
• What: reading articles
• When: ongoing
• Where: online
• How: by using journalistic-style writing

• The next line is the date of the most recent update of the article. Every Internet article needs a timestamp, in order to give relevancy and inform the reader of possible updates. Afterwards, the first actual paragraph provides an elaboration of the article purpose, which is about writing in a journalistic style. Four bulleted claims and premises follow the argument.
• After the claims are made, an example follows, in order to offer proof. The next section (which is in fact, this section) explains methodology. Note that this section is written with an internal inverted pyramid.
• The last section of this article contains the information that, while enriching the main topic, is offering the least crucial content. In the case of this article, the final paragraphs talk about the theory and history of how journalistic-style writing came into existence.
• The progression of this article, as well as most articles on Alizarian.com, are written to various degrees, like a reverse narrative, or rather, an inverted argumentative essay. Unlike this page, the order of a typical essay is as follows: 1) history, and observation, 2) formulation of hypothesis, 3) examples and experimentation, 4) claims and arguments made from examples, and 5) conclusion.
• Still, there is more complexity to content designed for Internet reading. Online content must be scannable for all types of readers. While some readers just read until they get bored and stop, others like to read just the first couple of sentences or highlighted text of each paragraph. Still, others just like to skip around looking for information that just seems to “jump” out at them. Readability techniques include:

• Short, narrowly focused paragraphs that deliver the most crucial information in the first 1-2 sentences. Big blocks of text, on the other hand, become overwhelming and tiring.
• Key facts are highlighted and dispersed logically and sparsely throughout the article, usually just emphasizing smaller parts of longer sentences. Too few and highlighted portions will overshadow the entire article. Too many and signal-to-noise ration increases, thereby diminishing the benefits of highlighting.
• Bulleted information - either as lists or tables, but always structured in a format that facilitates skimming. The best time to use bulleted information is when presenting a list or collection of related examples or claims.
• White space and indentations to allow breathing room: the mind gets time to process information before moving on. Structure articles in an outline format, with headings further indented to the left as hierarchy grows, as one's readings patterns always go left to right.
• Content is concise and grammatically correct: just deliver the facts. Reading on the Internet is not snuggling up with a book. Additionally, active voice (versus passive) and proper English promotes faster and better comprehension.

• The test of a successfully-written article: whatever length it may be, it will never look intimidating. Someone short on time can just read the title and tag line, and can still catch the main topic and purpose. A reader, who prefers to skim, can gather the section titles, paragraph headings, and highlighted text. Readers, who have the time to sit and read the entire article, will have no trouble should they be interrupted or forced to stop at any given point.

History and Theory of the Inverted Pyramid

• The inverted pyramid is a metaphor to describe how one should organize information in a story. A pyramid's large base represents a story's most important and interesting information, or conclusion, while a pyramid's tip has less substance and is not as crucial.
• By "inverting" the pyramid, the writer begins with the most critical content first. The tapering of the lower portion represents the diminishing importance of smaller details.
• Before the invention of the telegraph, information took a long time to travel, which reduced its time-critical nature. Articles could take a leisurely, narrative pace, eventually building up the the real news.
• The telegraph changed everything because every transmitted character cost money - it forced writers to be as concise as possible. At any given time, the writer had to be able to stop the transmission for financial reasons. Consequently, the inverted pyramid style came to be - the story can stop suddenly and the reader will still have the most important content.
• Notice that in the above example about Lincoln's assassination, the transmission cuts off suddenly, but the reader still understands the story.
• Time-sensitive information is a major motivation for inverted pyramid writing. In fast-changing, fast-breaking news situations, when events and circumstances can change quickly, this style allows reporters to rewrite and update the top of a story continuously.
• In the newspaper industry, reporters must write in this style. Before going to the presses, the editors have to fit all the stories on the pages. Should the story run too long, the editor can literally cut off the extra portion but still maintain a coherent article. If the story was written in a traditional narrative style, the editor would be forced to to waste valuable time trimming here and there instead of just making arbitrary cuts.

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  last updated on 2007-04-24 EST 23:04:28-0500
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