08-31-2018, 04:06 PM
We are awash in poorly written, poorly edited news articles and blog entries. The example you give, though, is neither. It’s classic, old school newspaper writing.
The basic format for a news story is, all the important points in the first couple paragraphs, then an explanation of the assorted points, typically following a pattern like:
A properly written newspaper article is set up so that you can read the first paragraph or two to learn just the basic details, the who what when and where. The why and how come next. Then, as you read further, you get deeper into the weeds. Reading the entire article will give you a better picture, but all the important stuff is up at the top of the article. A real journalist will never ever bury the lede.
Imagine being an editor laying out the front page news section for tomorrow’s morning paper, circa 1985. You have 18 articles. They’re all printed in long strips about 2” wide, and range in length from 4” to 25”. You have a total of 160 column inches of printed material but only space for about 100 column inches. You look over the articles and literally take scissors and cut the bottoms off most of the articles. You look them over and see if your trims require you to make further excisions, or perhaps rearrange things.
Or hey, imagine you’re a journalist. You’re supposed to turn in twelve column inches on some stadium financing shenanigans. But for all you know your article will be cut to three inches to make room for a sexier story. So you turn in an article that can be cut at any point after the first quotation.
The basic format for a news story is, all the important points in the first couple paragraphs, then an explanation of the assorted points, typically following a pattern like:
The reporter interjected one-sentence paragraphs of analysis between quotations from the people interviewed.
“It’s not really reporting news if nobody’s actually quoted,” said the reporter. “But if there’s no analysis it’s merely an interview transcript.”
Careful selection and arrangement of the quotations can lead a reader along a straight line through a complicated story.
“I might spend three months interviewing 30 people, and finding a through-line for the story is the trickiest part.”
Even after the reporter has written the article, her editor is likely to make changes to the basic structure of the story, often reorganizing the points, and sometimes deleting entire passages.
“Because we’re no longer constrained by column-inches in print, we’re not forced to cut nearly as much as we used to. But we do still trim pieces for clarity,” said one editor, reached at her cardboard home under a bridge in suburban Los Angeles.
A properly written newspaper article is set up so that you can read the first paragraph or two to learn just the basic details, the who what when and where. The why and how come next. Then, as you read further, you get deeper into the weeds. Reading the entire article will give you a better picture, but all the important stuff is up at the top of the article. A real journalist will never ever bury the lede.
Imagine being an editor laying out the front page news section for tomorrow’s morning paper, circa 1985. You have 18 articles. They’re all printed in long strips about 2” wide, and range in length from 4” to 25”. You have a total of 160 column inches of printed material but only space for about 100 column inches. You look over the articles and literally take scissors and cut the bottoms off most of the articles. You look them over and see if your trims require you to make further excisions, or perhaps rearrange things.
Or hey, imagine you’re a journalist. You’re supposed to turn in twelve column inches on some stadium financing shenanigans. But for all you know your article will be cut to three inches to make room for a sexier story. So you turn in an article that can be cut at any point after the first quotation.