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Journalism & Media vocabulary · Reporting and News Writing

Inverted pyramid

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

nounCommon term

In journalism & media, inverted pyramid means: A way of writing news in which the most important facts come first and the less important details follow, so the story can be cut from the bottom.

In Turkish: ters piramit, ters piramit tekniği

How it is used

The basic structure taught in every news writing course and still used for hard news, agency copy and online stories. Feature writers often break the rule and start with a scene instead.

Example sentences

  1. Use the inverted pyramid: put the death toll and the location in the first paragraph.

  2. Because the story followed the inverted pyramid, the editor could cut the last three paragraphs easily.

Common collocations

  • inverted pyramid style
  • inverted pyramid structure
  • write in the inverted pyramid
  • leadThe opening sentence or paragraph of a news story, which gives the most important facts and makes the reader want to continue.
  • the five WsThe basic questions every news story should answer: who, what, when, where and why, usually with how added as well.
  • news storyA single piece of reporting about a recent event or issue, published in print or online or broadcast on radio or television.
  • copyThe text of a news story or article that a journalist writes and sends to be edited and published.

More terms: Reporting and News Writing

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