Before I did the reading for this week I had no idea there
were so many news story formats. Even though I’ve written features as well as
news stories I never knew what format I was using to write them. In both cases
I would just either go straight for the inverted pyramid or just choose my
angle and write the story however I thought it sounded best.
The journalism classes I took during my undergrad beat the
inverted pyramid into us. The inverted pyramid is nice and works in a lot of
cases, but I felt there were some stories it didn’t lend itself to. I wanted to
do something else, but I was too worried I would get admonished for it. It’s
nice to know I have lots of story format options.
I had also never heard of a nut paragraph/nut graf. Learning
terms like this will help me write better stories with more focused themes.
Yes, I really like the inverted pyramid. When I consume news, it's best to just get down to the point. However, I though the new formats the book gave us deserved consideration, especially in long-form writing.
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DeleteWhen I think of news stories, I think of the inverted pyramid because, like you, my past journalism classes have nailed it into my head; however, The alternative ways of writing stories seems more creative. Some stories readers are going to read regardless of the format because they are interested in the topic of the story, so it might be nice if journalists spiced up their reading experience with a just suspenseful narrative.
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