Mon - April 14, 2003

Writing for blogs: how to be clear and interesting


Inverted Pyramid is the writing style favored by newspapers and wire services, and is often used by successful Webloggers and other 'semipro' publishers.

One of the reasons people read and come back to Weblogs and other written media is that they like the style of the site's author. Writing styles can be anything from pure stream of thought to conversation to more formal sorts of things.

While tastes vary, people generally respond best to a style that is clear. Fickle Web surfers also want to know quickly what a page or item is about, so they can judge if they want to spend the time to read it.

Newspapers have faced this issue for some 170 years: they've become pretty good at letting people know what they've got and then telling the story clearly and succinctly. The style called 'inverted pyramid' was developed by newpapers to quickly grab attention and hook the reader on the story.

Basicaly invertted pyramid means, when you are reporting factual material, that you say the most important or most newsworthy thing first, the 2nd most important thing second et cetera. When writing opinion or other topics, inverted pyramid dictates that you place you conclusion first, and then go on to expain yourself, making the case point by point from most important to least. Here's links to more info about inverted pyramid for journalists, and for Web writers.

Since newspaers have lots of content, they also try to be spare about words, so they can fit as much content as possible. Real writers are craftspeople in that they consider each word the way a fine cabinet maker chooses wood.

The best blogs use many style points from newspapers: they write catchy, brief headlines, decks (or explanatory lines under headlines) and photos and graphics to liven and explain things that can require a lot of explanation otherwise (here's a good one).

An additional point to remember is that many people read blog's RSS feeds in a news reader or from an aggregator Web site. These apps and sites often grab only the first few words of each item - another reason to put your topic or most important content close to the beginning of each item. So "Apple to buy Universal Music - Huh?" is a probaby better lead than "Really amazing to me that Apple would buy Universal Music": in a news reader, a reader might not know what the second item is really about.

To learn more about inverted pyramid, read news articles in quality newspapers like the New York Times and Washingtom Post. Also look at tabloid newspapers, especially in London - you may not like their subject matter, but tab editors are geniuses at getting the story and point of view into in a very few words that will invite a passerby to buy the newspaper.

The best writers are clear and engaging: they often have started by learning inverted pyramid and building from there. First be clear, then be interesting.

Posted: April 14, 2003 12:29   Chris Gulker on publishing   Web   Email Comments

© Chris Gulker