In most of the news starts with the most important information and this is followed by other information in the order of significance. That means the first paragraph contains the most important point, the third paragraph contains the second most important point, the fourth paragraph contains the next most important point and so on. Such way of writing a news story, with the main news in the beginning and the rest of the information following in decreasing order of importance is known as ‘inverted pyramid style’. It is the most prominent and or the most commonly used style of writing a news story.
If you turn a pyramid upside down, you will have the broad base at the top and the body pointing down. The widest part at the top represents the most substantial, interesting, and important information, illustrating that this kind of material should head the article, while the tapering lower portion illustrates that other material should follow in order of descending importance.
In this style of writing the news story is summarised in the lead and the facts are presented in diminishing order of importance. The most important details are given in second paragraph and more details are added in decreasing order of importance. All the paragraphs in the news story contain information, but each paragraph is less vital than the one before it. All questions of who, what, when, where, why and how are answered. This style basically organises the information in order of diminishing importance.
This style basically organises the information in order of diminishing importance. The inverted pyramid style has the several advantages. A reader can leave a story at any point of time and still understand it and get essential facts. Since less important facts are given at the end, it can be removed by the editor to fit a fixed size. It provides a format to convey information in a quick and efficient way. It allows, at least face of it, a format for providing a dispassionate and unbiased account of events. For these reasons, the Inverted Pyramid news story has become the basic form of newspaper writing. Since it is so common, it is the form that must first be mastered by any student with a serious interest in journalism.
It has some limitations too. The major disadvantage is the lead reveals every major detail and hence lacks surprises. Sometimes it can be confusing to select the most important fact, while writing a news story. While it’s easy in theory to state that the most important facts should be put at the top of the story, it’s not always so easy to determine what facts are most important. This, of course, is where “news judgment” comes in.
