2.2.2. T h e i n v e r t e d p y r a m i d a n d t h e l e a d

Even the most innovative American newspaper USA Today makes use of the inverted pyramid, a story form used by newspapers since the early 20^th century. USA Today as well as many other newspapers uses the inverted pyramid because it saves space permitting to deliver the most important information in the first paragraph or two.

The lead of the news story based on the inverted pyramid describes the climax of the event, the theme statement of a speech, the result of the investigation simply and clearly in the beginning. It is a brief statement of the facts that make the event newsworthy. The lead is supposed to lure the reader into the story and to give him or her an idea of what’s coming up and to set the tone. Thus, in a news-writing formula called the inverted pyramid, information is arranged in descending order of importance starting with the lead.

This story formula has become popular at least for two reasons. First, a person who reads as little as one paragraph gets the essential elements of the story. Second, many newspaper stories are cut to fit a certain amount of space, and cutting is easier if information is presented in order of descending importance.

While the inverted pyramid delivers the important news first, it does not encourage people to read the entire story. In spite of this, journalists employ the inverted pyramid with different kinds of stories - obituaries, accidents, speeches, press conferences, etc.

Assignment 3.

Traditionally the lead answers most of the six basic questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? News stories usually focus on a person(s) or an occurrence («Who» or «What»). In the following excerpts analyze the structure of the lead in the first sentence trying to identify the answers to the above questions.

1. LONDON - Queen Elizabeth II will attend a Nov.12 memorial concert for Princess Diana, to benefit the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children and the Royal Academy of Music’s 175^th Anniversary.

Diana was president of the hospital at the time of her death Aug.31 after a Paris car crash. She was president of the Royal Academy of Music from March 1985 until July 1996, the month before her divorce from Prince Charles became final.

Buckingham Palace said the queen is delighted to attend the Nov. 12 Mozart concert. The Royal Academy of Music’s Symphonia and chorus, conducted by Sir Colin Davis, will perform at London’s Royal Festival Hall... (USA Today)

2. Sweden’s government yesterday vowed to oppose Franco-German plans to form an informal committee of European finance ministers, excluding those from countries which do not join monetary union. (Financial Times)

3. The French government is to announce reforms in the next few weeks of the rescue mechanism set up in 1995 to support Credit Lyonnais, the state-owned bank. (Financial Times)

4. Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French finance and industry minister, yesterday rebuffed a German proposal for a seat to be kept free for a British representative on the six-member executive board of the future European central bank (ECB). (Financial Times)

5. Russia yesterday sought to shield itself from the turmoil hitting emerging markets by increasing interest rates and announcing a more flexible exchange rate policy from next year. (Financial Times)

2.2.3. T y p e s o f t h e l e a d

There are several most typical approaches to lead writing. Among those are:

1. Immediate identification leads in which one of the most important facts is «who». This approach is used when someone important or someone whose name is widely recognized is making news. Well-known names catch the reader’s eye and interest and it does not make sense to delay identification of someone like Mother Theresa or Princess Diana.

2. Delayed-identification leads are used, for example, when the person or persons involved have little name recognition among the readers.

3. Summary leads are used when a reporter deals with a story with several important elements and sees that the whole of the action is more important than any of its parts.

4. Multiple elements leads work more information into the first paragraph using parallel constructions which refer to several elements that need prominent display. Some multiple-elements leads actually consist of two paragraphs.

5. Leads with a twist show that the inverted pyramid approach is not too rigid and allows some fun, oddity and imagination in presenting essential information.

Assignment 4.

Read the following stories/leads and decide which kind of the lead has been used in each one.

1. President Bill Clinton yesterday cut short a trip to Houston and rushed back to Washington in a desperate bid to salvage legislation giving him fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals. (Financial Times)

2. Israeli and Palestinian officials resume talks in the region next week after failing to bridge many differences during negotiations which ended near Washington yesterday. (Financial Times)

3. An engineer at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant who has repeatedly questioned safety and security there has been fired, just days after he wrote an article critical of the plant.

Sergei Kharitonov, an engineer at the plant, was officially fired as part of a layoff. But Kharitonov, a member of the environmental organization Green World, says his firing was motivated to silence him. He says he will sue through the courts to get his job back. (The St. Petersburg Times)

4. The prosecutor investigating last week’s murder of a St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Arbitration Court judge says the victim could have been killed in the course of a robbery.

However, according to local newspapers, co-workers of Vladimir Gromov, 58, say they believe he was killed last Thursday in a contract murder, after he refused to accept a bribe from a client. Gromov was found unconscious in his apartment-building stairwell with a fractured skull, and died later at a local hospital. St. Petersburg police said earlier this week the murder could be related to the bankruptcy of Severny Torgovy Bank (STB). Prosecutor Sergei Pogudin said Gromov’s death might have been tied to STB’s failure, but he said simple robbery was just as likely. (The St. Petersburg Times)

5. Bounty hunter Linda Ownbey knew something was wrong when the two men stepped into her Phoenix office looking for work. (The St. Petersburg Times)

6. Pakistan has suspended proposals to sack thousands of government workers, but has said its plans to shed employees from public sector companies would proceed. (Financial Times)

7. The Bonn cabinet proposed yesterday that German companies should be allowed to issue shares with no par value in preparation for the introduction of the European single currency and should have limited powers to buy back their own shares. (Financial Times)

par value - номинальная цена

2.2.4. T h e s t o r y o r g a n i z a t i o n / s t r u c t u r e

A straight news story normally has one, two, or three main themes/sets of facts. The story with more than three is rare.

A one-subject/single-element/single-theme story usually starts with a single-element lead. The second paragraph either elaborates on the lead or provides the necessary background or additional important information the writer was not able to include in the lead. The story continues with supporting information about the lead. When the writer has finished with all the relevant material to support the main element of the story, secondary themes ranked by importance are then included in the story.

Assignment 5.

Analyze the structure of the following one subject/single element story.

Vietnamese Jet Crash Kills 65 in Cambodia

By Ker Munthit

The Associated Press

PHNOM PEHN, Cambodia - A 1-year-old Thai boy was the only survivor when a Vietnam Airlines jet with 66 people on board crashed in a ball of flame as it approached Phnom Pehn’s international airport in heavy rain.

The Soviet-built Tupolev 134, arriving from Ho Chi Minh City, went down Wednesday in a rice paddy around a kilometre south of the runway in a downpour of seasonal rain. It clipped palm trees, broke apart and exploded on impact, witnesses said.

Four people initially survived, but two men - one a Japanese - died at the capital’s Calmette Hospital, doctors said. A Korean boy, Oh Sung-hyuk, 4, whose parents were killed, succumbed to heavy burns.

A 1-year-old Thai boy, Phai Bun, was the only survivor. He suffered a broken leg and was reported by doctors to be in a stable condition. His mother was killed. His father was awaiting the flight at the airport when the plane crashed and exploded.

The cause of the crash was unknown. Rescue workers pulled bodies from wreckage that was still burning more than an hour after the crash.

Hundreds of people converged at the crash site. Some police officers joined looters in going through the wallets of victims, stealing scattered luggage and carting off bits of the plane.

They were chased away by other police.

A Cambodian man surveying the carnage wept and cried: «My brother! My brother’s supposed to be here.»

Vietnam Airlines officials in Ho Chi Minh City said the plane was carrying six crew and 60 passengers, mostly citizens of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The plane, designed in the 1960s, normally seats 67 passengers.

AP photographer David Longstreath, who was waiting to catch another flight at the airport, said he heard the normal sound of a plane on approach and then the high rev of engines trying to regain altitude.

Only the tail section of the plane and a portion of the fuselage remained intact.

Tith Chantha, chief of the control tower, said the plane was at an altitude of 600 meters and was told to shift landing from the east side of the runway to the west.

The crew lost communication with the tower and three minutes later the plane was diving into the trees.

«We still have to discover the black box to determine the cause of the accident», Tith Chantha said.

The airport was not closed. Only one flight between Bangkok and Phnom Penh was canceled.

Vietnam Airlines was one of the first carriers to resume service to Phnom Penh’s Pochentong International Airport after a bloody coup in July damaged the airport.

The control tower was looted by troops loyal to coup leader Hun Sen, who has close relations with Vietnam. The Tower was stripped of computers and other gear, hastily replaced to get the airport functioning. (The St. Petersburg Times)

to succumb to burns - погибнуть от ожегов

Stories containing more than one item of equal importance, or multiple elements stories require special leads. All the elements may be included in the first paragraph, or each element may have a sentence of its own. The second option allows the writer to place both sentences in the first paragraph or to make each sentence into a separate paragraph. Another option is a summary lead. In all multiple-element stories, the first two or three paragraphs determine the order of the rest of the story. Background and supporting materials are well organized for each lead element. Smooth transition from one element to another is extremely important.

Assignment 6.

Analyze the structure of the following multiple-element story.