Inverted Pyramid

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Inverted Pyramid

• Putting First things First

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The Inverted Pyramid

• The easiest way to write news is to use the
  Inverted Pyramid Format.

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Put First things First

• The Inverted pyramid puts the most important
  information in the story first.
• Why?

• Most Important

• Least Important

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Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz..

• It began during the Civil War because of the
  telegraph.
• We still use the Inverted pyramid today because
  people get bored easily.
• Main Idea If you stop reading after one
  sentence, at least it was the most important
  sentence.

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Part By Part

• All News Stories can be broken down into three
  parts The LEAD, QUOTES and TRANSITIONS.

Lead
Quote
Transition
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Leads

• The Lead is the first paragraph of the story. It
  has to perform one of two possible jobs.
• It can inform.
• It can interest.

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Quotes

• These come from your interviews.
• Quotes let your source tell the story. You are
  not an expert on the topic.
• You should reflect all of your sources with your
  quotes.
• Quotes give your story evidence.

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Transitions

• This is where you get to write.
• Journalism uses simple words.
• Transitional paragraphs are usually 1-3
  sentences.
• Transitions help move your reader through the
  story, from quote to quote.

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Part By Part

• If you use the Inverted Pyramid correctly, you
  just put together your Leads Quotes and
  Transitions until you run out of information.

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Part By Part

• In this example, then, your most important quote,
  or your quote that backs up your lead would be
  Q1. Your next most important quote would be Q2
  and so on.

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Oops!

• If you learn to use the Inverted Pyramid well,
  you may notice that youre writing a paper your
  English teacher might not like!
• Why?

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English V. Journalism

• Use an introduction, body and conclusion.
• Use 5-7 sentence paragraphs.
• Use vocab
• words.

• Use a lead, body and no conclusion.
• Use 1-3 sentence
  paragraphs.
• Use simple
  words.