The inverted pyramid is a commonly used scheme for organizing
nonfiction. The arrangement is really a type of information
string with the beads of information arranged by the size
or importance of the ideas:
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The "must know" information is at the top.
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Useful supporting detail comes lower down.
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Trivia is at the tail end.
The reason the structure rates a category by itself is that, unlike
other strings, it can be used to structure entire documents
other than essays.
News story organization
For
years, writing with the main point in the first sentence and less
important material lower down was called news style. If
a story was too long, a newspaper editor whacked off its end.
Since the big news was at the top of the story, there was little
risk of losing vital information.
When newspapers adopted a human-interest approach to journalism,
which uses the persuasive essay pattern, news style almost disappeared.
Electronic writing
Recently, the top-down style has been revived as the pattern for
news stories online. It is also the standard for web pages,
web site organization, and e-mail communication. In
each of these formats, writers expect to see the most important
information right away. Material lower down may not get a glance.
A tough pattern to teach
Though it's easy to talk about, news style is not easy to teach.
For example, the pattern:
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Provides no guidance about what is an appropriate top-level
fact.
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Does not reveal if there is essential information missing.
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Does not indicate what the paper should include.
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Does not give writers any way of know when they have written
enough.
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Does not lend itself readily to procedural checklists writers
can use in monitoring their work.
Use in introductions
Despite its limitations, writers must have the inverted pyramid
for one print function: writing introductory
paragraphs in essays and reports.
An introduction built as an upside down pyramid is never out
of place in expository prose, but it is particularly suited to
third-person exposition. Besides that, the pattern does
not require any great creativity, so it
is easy to learn how to write an introduction using it.