Title of Story: "THE END!"

But alas, I am simply not good at that style and apparently would not have been very good in that profession, and there you have it!  But at least I was able to give you a quick history lesson.

And that's it.  I'm sorry it wasn't too exciting, but that's really all I have for you today.




.....   Perhaps I should start from the beginning and explain!

See, when I was a student in the School of Journalism at my University, twenty something years ago, they taught us to write in the style of "The Upside Down Pyramid!"  This is based on getting to the point of your story first and then filling in all of the details afterwards.

If I recall correctly, this style of writing for news came about during the American Civil War when the telegraph was widely used by newspaper reporters.  In case the telegraph lines were cut whilst reporters were transmitting their story to the newspaper (which obviously happened often), they would simply get to the point of the story in the beginning.  Much like building the bottom of the pyramid first, but at the top..... yeah, the visual made more sense in college....

But you get to the point right?  It's like starting with your dessert for dinner, moving onto the main course and then having the sides, the salad and then finishing off with your appetizer.  So, perhaps it could've been called the "Really Big Meal in Reverse" style of reporting.

Anyway, this is still a very commonly used style in reporting but does it have to be?  I dunno.

When you think about it, newspapers and magazines have much more space to fill with a news story than television and radio do.  Broadcast news has a time limit, so they have to keep all their stories short and concise.  Print can take all the time in the world, it's really up to the reader regarding how much time they choose to give to a certain story.

So, print could really go into a much more narrative style of writing if they chose to, but would you read?

"It was a dark and stormy morning when your local senator was spotted through my camera lens that day..."  Would be a rough way for a story to start and then finish two pages later with "And so, apparently taxes will be increased!"

That might just offend the reader.  I might have given up after the first sentence, unless there was some juicy stuff littered throughout the article.

So anyway, I don't write in the "Gravity and Laws of Nature Defying Upside Down Pyramid" style of writing.  I've been reviewing a lot of my past articles lately and it is very clear to me that I don't do it.  Apparently, I just ramble and ramble and ramble on until I get to some sort of point.  I should try something different today.