Writing notes: The journalist’s pyramid scheme

The inverted pyramid story form, thought to be out of date by some, is still a useful tool for today’s online journalist, according to a report in the Web log “The 15-minute Journalism School.”

There you have it: the inverted pyramid lead for this post.

Most journalistic stories — for television, radio or newspaper — are written by formula, and none is as enshrined in journalistic lore as the inverted pyramid. It’s the story form that puts the key information at the top, then relates other information in descending order of importance.

Nobody knows for sure the origins of the inverted pyramid story form. Ancient journalistic lore had it that reporters during the Civil War were worried that the telegraph line might be cut before they were finished dictating their stories, so they crammed all the important stuff into the top of the story and worked their way down to the deep background information.

But newspaper historian Marcus Errico disputes this origin story in his study of the “summary lead,” another name for the inverted pyramid. Errico found that very few inverted pyramid leads were written during or immediately after the Civil War. The story form really took off after the turn of the 20th Century, when writers sought a more objective style.

Although many writers see the inverted pyramid as out of date and lacking style, it is a surprisingly common way of telling a story even today. In the world of online journalism, it serves the important function of providing a quick take on a subject that can be compiled into a digest of several stories. Often these are linked to the full story for those who are interested.

Jakob Nielsen, who has studied the Web for more than a decade, makes the point that users are reluctant to scroll, so “they will very frequently be left to read only the top part of an article. Very interested readers will scroll, and these few motivated souls will reach the foundation of the pyramid and get the full story in all its gory detail.”

The inverted pyramid is still used in newspapers, too. Take this lead from a New York Times story of March 13, 2009:

BEIJING — The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, expressed unusually blunt concern on Friday about the safety of China’s $1 trillion investment in American government debt, the world’s largest such holding, and urged the Obama administration to provide assurances that the securities would maintain their value in the face of a global financial crisis.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and bankers this weekend in London to lay the groundwork for next month’s G20 summit, Mr. Wen said he was “worried” about China’s holdings of United States Treasury bonds and other debt, and that China was watching economic developments in the United States closely.

“President Obama and his new government have adopted a series of measures to deal with the financial crisis. We have expectations as to the effects of these measures,” Mr. Wen said. “We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.”

Inverted pyramid by the numbers

You’ll see that the story follows this form:

1. The lead:
• is one sentence.
• runs 30 to 35 words at the most.
• tells the most important information in the story and gives specific facts.
• sticks with who, what, when and where; the lead rarely gets into the how and why.
2. The second paragraph:
• expands or develops some idea introduced in the lead
• should not drop the story into a chronological narrative
3. The third paragraph:
• often is a direct quote.
• if it is a direct quote, the speaker should be introduced in the first two paragraphs.

Additional paragraphs will present facts in descending order of importance. The ending paragraphs contain background information.

often include a lot of detail that had to be left out of the first two paragraphs.

All major information should be attributed unless it is commonly known or unless the information itself strongly implies the source.

• Break up quotes with good lead-in paragraphs; don’t dump a string of direct quotations on the reader.
• Direct quotations should be two or three sentences long.
• A direct quotation and its attribution should be punctuated properly. Here’s an example:
• “John did not go with her,” he said.
• A direct quotation should be in the proper sequence: “Direct quote,” speaker verb.
• In attributions, “said” is the most transparent and least intrusive verb. Remember that verbs such as “claimed” put an editorial spin on the speaker’s honesty.

Further reading

Errico, Marcus et al. 1997-98. The evolution of the summary news lead. Media History Monographs, 1.1: http://www.scripps.ohiou.edu/mediahistory/mhmjour1-1.htm

Nielsen, Jakob. 1996. Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace. Nielsen’s Alert Box: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9606.html

Scanlan, Chip. 2003. Writing from the Top Down: Pros and Cons of the Inverted Pyramid. Poynter Institute: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=38693

Editing notes: Style by the book

When journalists use the word style, they’re not talking about designer clothes. For them, style means a set of rules about the language, about names, about anything that might be done two or more ways. The style book picks one and sticks with it.

Style is how news organizations ensure consistency in their presentation. For the writer and editor, style mainly concerns how language is used, including everything from how to abbreviate California to whether Harry S. Truman’s middle initial takes a period. (It does, according to the Associated Press. Although the initial doesn’t stand for anything, Truman said in the 1960s, “It makes no difference.” Since then, AP has gone with the standard practice of using the period.)

The rise of the AP

The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual has become the industry standard mostly by default. Years ago, the AP and United Press International competed as equals in providing services to news organizations. In the 1980s, UPI went into sharp decline and no longer exists. The Associated Press says in its stylebook that it now provides “state, national and international news, photos, graphics and broadcast services to newspapers, radio and television stations around the world.”

Part of the AP’s success is due to its status as a cooperative of its members. It remains sensitive to the needs of its customers because they are its owners. The flip side is that much of what the AP distributes comes from its members.

If you think about the wide reach of the Associated Press, you will realize that consistency in its use of language isn’t just a journalistic nicety; it’s an economic necessity. If its members all used their own style, the AP would spend countless employee hours correcting style errors. For news outlets, adapting to AP style eases the workload on editors who handle primarily AP wire copy.

Not that other wire services don’t exist. Reuters is a service that specializes in international news. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal offer wire services, as do news conglomerates such as Gannett, Knight-Ridder, Newhouse and Tribune Media. Each of these wire services may have its own style following its parent organization. Wire editors soon become adept at picking up the differences between, say, the New York Times and the Associated Press.

Local style

Large news organizations often have their own style books. These may agree for the most part with AP style, but they also will include “local” style: exceptions and additions to AP style. These are standard ways of referring to local government, organizations or locations.

Smaller news organizations that use the AP Stylebook also develop local style sheets. These may be a printed collection of style points or simply a computer file where the copy desk chief posts style points.

Common ground

The people who write style books today seek to conform to the most commonly used rules of grammar, punctuation and usage. This has not always been so. In the 1930s, Col. Robert McCormick, the eccentric owner of the Chicago Tribune, attempted to recast the English language into simplified spellings. The Tribune’s style was his main engine of change. For many years, the Tribune style book dictated spellings such as frater for freighter and thru for through.

When I was hired at the Tribune in 1983, the paper’s style book noted that the last of these truncated spellings had been eliminated. “Cigaret,” replaced by the preferred “cigarette,” was one of these last words to go.

In his forward to the 2000 edition of the AP Stylebook, AP President Louis D. Boccardi wrote that the goal of the Stylebook has always been to “make clear and simple rules, permit few exceptions to the rules, and rely heavily on the chosen dictionary as the arbiter of conflicts.”

Boccardi acknowledged that journalists aren’t unanimous in their approach to style.

“Some don’t think it is really important,” he wrote. “Some agree that basically there should be uniformity for reading ease if nothing else. Still others are prepared to duel over a wayward lowercase.”

Copy editors run into all three.

The first type, those who think style is not important, have wasted the editor’s time by expecting them to fix style errors. This type of sloppiness is unprofessional, and it damages the confidence editors have in a writer.

The third type, those who think stylebooks must answer to some higher order for every period and abbreviation, waste time in unproductive argument. In the end, somebody has to decide a common way to do things, and not everyone will agree.

I’m in the second category. If style is based as much as possible on accepted practices, then the professional thing to do is learn proper style and use it.

Style and the World Wide Web

Attention to style is one element of professionalism in your approach to journalism. Inconsistent style, along with grammar and punctuation errors, mark the blogger or Web author as an amateur. As the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, “God is in the details,” meaning that whatever we do, we should do thoroughly.

The key entries

Almost every news story contains names, titles, addresses and dates. After a few nights on a desk, editors come to apply style in these areas by force of habit. Here, in alphabetical order, are the AP Stylebook entries you’ll use the most and are most worthy of study:

1. Abbreviations and acronyms
2. Addresses
3. Capitalization
4. Courtesy title
5. Datelines
6. Dimensions
7. Directions and regions
8. Essential clauses, non-essential clauses
9. Essential phrases, non-essential phrases
10. Numerals
11. Organizations and institutions
12. Plurals
13. Possessives
14. Quotation marks
15. State names
16. That
17. Time element
18. Times
19. Titles
20. United States
21. Verbs

Editing notes: Everyone needs and editro

OK, the misspelling is on purpose, but in my years as a journalist, I’ve made my share of unintentional boners. In all instances, an editor might have saved my bacon, but even seasoned pros let mistakes get by.

In the editing classes I’ve taught, knowledge of the language is a key topic. But what students really need is a rarified common sense that only comes through experience.

The basis for good editing is knowing what to fix and what to leave alone. My colleague Buck Ryan came up with this list of good practices years ago, when newspapers ruled the Earth, and it still fills the bill in the age of multimedia:

The good editor keeps in mind three ideals:

• Make the simplest fix possible. Some editors see one word that is a mistake and use it as an excuse to rewrite a sentence.
• For close calls, let the writer’s words stand. The editor may not like the sound of what is written, but the writer prevails in matters of taste
• When in doubt, seek help by asking questions. Others on the desk are the editor’s best resource.

I'm always surprised a bit when students, even professionals, don't follow this last rule. It is human nature not to want to seem weak in front of others. Seeking help here means asking the reporter for clarification or simply looking it up. I've learned this rule the hard way, by not following up on my doubts and letting mistakes see publication.

Reasons to change copy

The good editor has a valid reason for every change in a story that he or she makes, including:

• Accuracy. This is the No. 1 reason for changing copy. It includes “killer mistakes,” usually errors of fact, as well as spelling, grammar and punctuation. Writers appreciate changes that make the story accurate.
• Clarity. If the editor doesn’t understand it, will the reader? Problems of clarity often require the editor to ask the reporter what he or she means. Be careful not to “fix” something that is unclear by making it clearly wrong. Check first!
• Simplicity. Multisyllabic words are more difficult to read and understand; that may be why the military and government are so fond of them. The rule is, Use the shorter word when no meaning is lost. Sort out the double-talk.
• Brevity. Long, complex sentences are difficult to read and to understand. Studies have shown that the optimum average sentence length for readability is 20 words, in a pleasing mix of long and short sentences.
• Consistency. News stories must be consistent. Figures must add up. If the lead says five men were arrested, five must be named. Consistency also has to do with style. All news organizations have rules about using figures, about capitalization and about abbreviations, among other things. The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual is the most commonly used style guide, but many larger news organizations have their own style books.
• Coherence. For a story to hang together, it must have smooth transitions. It may be as simple as finding the right conjunction. It may require making sure quotes are attributed logically or less frequently. In extreme cases, it may require shifting the order of paragraphs.

Rewriting vs. editing

As soon as an editor decides to abandon the strategy of making the simple fix and decides to rewrite a part of a story, he or she runs the risk of introducing errors or changing the essential meaning of the original. Remember that reporters are subject to many limitations and pressures; respect what they do and they will respect their editors.