How
To Construct The Lead
The beginning of the story (“lead”) must be concise. This may be a
single sentence or several sentences, whatever is necessary to give the
reader a clear overview of what it contains.
Journalists often say that they spend about 50% of their time writing the
lead of a story; writing the rest of the story also takes about 50%. Why?
Because this is usually how long it requires them to determine the key
information to put into the lead, and then to package it in a clear,
concise manner. After that, the rest of the story almost writes itself.
Determining this key information is not a matter of intuition. There is a
method. Before journalists start to write, they ask themselves a series of
questions known as the 5Ws & H.
1. Who? Who are the person or persons
involved in the story?
2. What? What happened?
3. When? When did it happen?
4. Where? Where did it happen?
5. Why? Why did it happen?
6. How? How did it happen?
Not all these questions will be relevant all the time, but they provide a
good test. After writing the lead, check to see how many of the questions
have been answered. If any answers are missing, there are two possible
reasons:
- The question isn’t relevant, so do nothing.
- The question is relevant but was neglected, so rewrite.
Another way to evaluate the lead is the Stop Reading Test. Remember,
you are generally writing for busy people. They generally do not want—and
often do not need—to read the entire text. So ask yourself: At what point
could someone stop reading and still get a clear, sharp picture of what
the text is all about? If they would need most or all of the text, you
must do some serious rewriting.
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• How To Construct The Body
The inverted pyramid is a pyramid because at each point from the lead
downward the information becomes less and less important. This does not
mean the information is necessarily less interesting; that is for each
individual reader to determine. However, it is no longer vital.
But how do you arrange information in descending order of importance?
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Remember, it must be
possible to delete information from the bottom without anyone knowing that
it was ever there. This is certainly not easy; it requires a lot of skill
and practice. But once again, there is a method that offers considerable
help. It is called the Q & A Technique. It works like this. After each
sentence you write, examine it to see what question it could raise in the
mind of your readers. Then answer it! If you do this consistently, you will find the answers becoming more and
more detailed, so the information will become less and less vital. When
you run out of questions, it is probably a good time to stop writing.
A Pertinent Example
Here is the lead of a story in an international newspaper
Super-sportsman Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner, filed
suit Wednesday in a Paris court to force the publisher La Martiničre to
include his denial of doping charges in a new book about him, scheduled to
reach bookstores in September.
(And the story continues)
Here are the 5Ws & H
1. Who? Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour of France winner
2. What? filed suit against the publisher La Martiničre
3. When? Wednesday
4. Where? in a Paris court
5. Why? to include his denial of doping charges in a new book
about him
6. How? (not relevant)
Note that the “Who” is not simply Lance Armstrong but “Lance
Armstrong, seven-time Tour of France winner”. The name Lance Armstrong may
not be immediately familiar to everyone, but with this description, even
people who have never heard of him would now know who he is.
Similarly, the “What” is not simply that he filed a lawsuit but that he
filed suit against “the publisher La Martiničre”. Most readers probably
will not know who La Martiničre is, but they will know that the writer
does, which reinforces their confidence in the accuracy of the text.
Gaining reader confidence is essential to effective expository writing,
and inserting precise detail wherever relevant is an excellent way to do
it.
Starting from this lead, the story continues down the inverted pyramid. At
each point, the information becomes less vital, giving each individual
reader the option to decide at which point they have had enough and can
turn their attention to something else.
How to Use the Inverted Pyramid in Your Type of Writing
You may now feel that the inverted pyramid is an excellent idea—for
newspapers. But is it relevant for the type of writing that you do?
Emphatically, yes!
Remember, the inverted pyramid provides information in exactly the way
people prefer it, particularly when they are in a hurry.
Suppose you are writing some kind of company report—a financial analysis,
a new product proposal, changes to the company's employment policies, etc.
It runs to 20 pages. Obviously you can’t organise it into one big inverted
pyramid; even the most accomplished professional writer wouldn’t attempt
such a daunting task. However, you can organise it into sections and
subsections, and write these as inverted pyramids.
You can even go a step further. Most such reports begin with an executive
summary. Write this as you would the lead of an inverted pyramid, i.e. be
certain that all the key information is located there and that it is
presented in a clear, concise, confidence-building manner.
Contrary to common conventional wisdom, you should write the executive
summary before you write the body, at least as a rough draft. To emphasise
the point, perhaps we should replace the term “executive summary”, which
implies writing the body first and then summarising it, for something more
appropriate such as “executive briefing”, “executive focus”, etc. Treating
the executive summary as the lead of an inverted pyramid is not easy, but
it confers some extraordinary advantages on both the writer and the
readers.
• Advantages for the writer
Identifying and writing the executive summary first helps you to:
- Determine what information you really need in the body of the report,
i.e. what is of key importance and secondary importance. And what can be
eliminated, i.e. what is of no importance.
- Organise the body into the most appropriate sections and subsections.
- Present the information in each section and subsection in descending
order of importance.
• Advantages for the readers
With an executive summary is written like the lead of an inverted pyramid,
readers can:
- Get a clear overview of what the report contains.
- Determine which sections and subsections of the body may be of
particular interest.
- Decide whether or not they even need to read the body.
Remember, you are dealing with busy people; they have neither the time nor
the desire to read the entire report. What they really want is for the
writer to clearly identify what they must read (executive summary). Any
additional material they may wish to read should be left to their own
judgement.
The general structure of a well-written report would thus consist of two
parts:
1. Executive Summary Written like the lead of an inverted
pyramid, i.e. build it on the 5 Ws & H
2. Body Written in sections and
subsections, each one in the form of an inverted pyramid
I recently had a discussion about the ideas in this article with a
journalist friend of mine, the president of a major US news distribution
company. He suddenly realised that over his 40-year career, the inverted
pyramid had become so much a part of him that he unconsciously uses it in
virtually everything he writes: letters, emails, reports, financial
statements, new product proposals, etc.
You will probably never reach the stage of using the inverted pyramid
without a second thought. However, if you begin consciously using it as a
first thought, I am certain you will be pleased at just how much it will
help you write more clearly, concisely—and rapidly. |
