Structure of a Straight News Article

When we are writing a straight news article, we usually have to follow the inverted pyramid structure. This makes the journalist place the most important information at the very start and then slowly put less information at the bottom.

First, we start with the headlines. It is mostly printed in big font on the newspaper to capture the readers' attention. It can be up to 10 words in total and it provides enough information, though it is very short. It also acts as a hook to the reader to interest him.

Next, there is the summary lead. Journalists usually spell it as "lede" so as to not confuse it with the metal lead or other homonyms. This contains the who, what, where, when, why and how about the incident. It provides the reader with very important background information as well.

Following the summary lead, comes the rest of the body paragraphs. In these paragraphs, sentences are an average of 20 to 28 words and paragraphs are much shorter than in essays. These paragraphs explain the story in much more detail, providing quotes from people. They also contain some related events and the preceding happenings and follow-up actions following the event.

Lastly comes the final paragraph and the ending. This features more of related events and also gives implications in the future because of the event.

Most journalists use this structure when they are drafting articles for the newspaper. Though there have been critics on the structure, it is indeed a very useful tool to most journalists.

(Term 2 Post #7)