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How
to Improve Your Writing by Standing on Your Head
by Philip Yaffe
You may not have thought about it, but
newspapers provide the best examples of clear, concise, dense (factual)
writing you can find anywhere. Otherwise people wouldn’t read them.
Journalists not only write superbly well, they do so extremely rapidly.
When a news event occurs, they don’t have the luxury of spending several
days to put together their text. At best, they have a few hours. Learning
how journalists work their “daily miracles” can help you write better at
your much more leisurely pace.
Here is an article from an international newspaper Britain
yesterday has once again called for the United Nations to mount a
peacekeeping operation in the violence-torn Darfur region of Sudan in
response to increasing complaints from aid agencies on site that
international efforts to help Darfur’s desperate, displaced population are
woefully inadequate. At the same time, Her Majesty’s Government is joining
with other European Union countries to threaten sanctions against Sudan
unless its government energetically moves to end the “ethnic cleansing”
against black villagers in Darfur by the mainly Arab Janjawid militias. UN
officials report that the conflict has already claimed from 30,000 –
50,000 lives and about 1.2 million people have been displaced, with about
200,000 taking refuge in neighbouring Chad. (And the story continues)
In the first paragraph,
we learn that:
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1. The British Government is concerned
about the situation in Darfur.
2. Darfur is a violence-torn region of Sudan.
3. Britain believes a peacekeeping force is urgently needed.
4. It is pressing the United Nations to supply this peacekeeping force.
5. This is not the first time that it has urged the UN to supply
peacekeeping force.
6. The population of Darfur has been displaced.
7. Aid agencies in Darfur say that international assistance to these
distressed people is inadequate. |
In the second paragraph, we learn that:
1. The trouble in Darfur is a race war
2. Arab militias are attacking black villagers.
3. Britain and other EU countries believe the Sudanese Government is not
doing enough to stop the war.
4. They threaten sanctions against Sudan if its government does not
quickly take action to end the attacks.
5. To date, between 30,000 - 50,000 people have been killed.
6. About 1.2 million have been displaced.
7. About 200,000 have fled across the border into the neighbouring country
of Chad.
8. These figures come from the United
Nations, which is a reliable source.
Imagine that you had known absolutely nothing about Darfur before reading
this text. Within two paragraphs you have learned virtually everything you
need to know about this tragic situation. This is certainly clear,
concise, dense writing at its very finest. Unfortunately, it is seldom
recognised as such. According to the adage: Today a newspaper may be the
most valuable thing in the world; tomorrow it is good only for wrapping
fish.
Now that you appreciate how remarkable qualities of newspaper writing, the
question is: How does it happen? And how can you apply its lessons to
your type of writing?
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Turning Things on Their Head
Journalist use an ingenious technique called the “inverted pyramid”.
Before seeing how it works, it would be useful to see where it came
from.
A couple of centuries ago, poor literacy and primitive printing techniques
meant that newspapers had few readers, few pages, and were published
infrequently (once a week or even once a month). As literacy and printing
techniques improved, the number of readers increased, the number of pages
increased. And so did frequency. Most newspapers were published at least
once a week, some 2 - 3 times a week. Many even became dailies.
This accelerating pace of production created a serious technical problem.
In more leisurely days, if a story was too long for the space assigned to
it, there was always plenty of time to either rewrite it or redesign the
page. However, when newspapers became dailies, this was no longer
possible. What newspapers needed were stories that they could cut off from
the bottom. In this way, instead of labouring to revise a story at the
last minute, they could simply remove the last few sentences or
paragraphs, and the job was done.
In order to do this, stories had to be written in a very special way. It
is of no value simply to cut from the bottom if the lost information is
crucial for the reader to understand what the story is all about.
Consequently, stories had to be written “top down”. All key information
had to be concentrated at the beginning and all secondary information
presented in declining order of importance. In this way text could be
deleted from the bottom and no one would know that it had ever been there.
This story structure became known as the inverted pyramid. It
worked extremely well because it not only solved the mechanical problem of
overly long texts, it also turned out to be how people prefer to get their
information, particularly when they are in a hurry. With today’s computer
technology, the mechanical problem that gave rise to the inverted pyramid
is no longer relevant. However, because it constitutes the very basis of
good expository writing, the inverted pyramid is still held in high
esteem. Imagine an upside-down pyramid, or rather a triangle, i.e. with
its point at the bottom and the wide part at the top.
The top, where all the key information is concentrated, is called the
“lead”. The second part, which
contains the secondary information (details), is called the “body.
continued
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Contributing Writer Philip
Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal
and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in
good writing and good public speaking in Brussels, Belgium.
This article is based on Mr. Yaffe’s excellent book In the “I” of the
Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a
Professional. It is available directly from the publisher in Belgium (www.Storypublishers.be)
or Amazon (www.Amazon.com).
For further information, please contact: Philip Yaffe
61, avenue des Noisetiers, B-1170 Brussels, Belgium Tel: 32 2 660 0405
Email: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com
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