If you have taken a public relations
or journalism class before, you have likely heard the term "inverted
pyramid" used to describe the way you should write.
Picture an upside down triangle, with the wide end at the top of
the page and the pointy end at the bottom, and you will get the
idea.
The idea behind the inverted pyramid
writing style is that you should start with the most important information
first, and then put the less important information at the bottom.
This style of writing is associated with how newspaper copy was
edited in the days before computers.
Literally, in the dark days of journalism
before desktop publishing was invented, newsprint was cut out and
pasted on page mock-ups. If there wasn't room for the whole story,
the editor got out his trusty X-Acto knife and chopped off the bottom
of the article. If important information was included below the
chopping point, it never made it to print.
While we have more advanced newspaper
publishing technology today, there is still an important lesson
to be learned from the inverted pyramid writing style.
Living as we do in the information
age, we are bombarded by messages. I literally get more than 100
e-mail messages every day, not counting the SPAM that I just delete.
I freely admit to skimming through the messages looking for the
important content.
I also freely admit to missing content
added on at the very end of a long message. With so many messages
to get through, I just quit reading when I think I've gotten the
important part. I don't do it on purpose. I don't even realize I
do it at the time that it happens. It's like a defense mechanism
against information overload. I'll bet if you're honest, you'll
admit that you do the same thing.
My attention span (limited as it may
be) has become my virtual X-Acto knife. If I have to read too far
into a message to get to your point, it is very likely that I will
miss your point. So … if you are even still reading this post,
keep in mind that you need to structure your messages so you get
your point across first. Everything else … well, as they say
in the newspaper biz … is just filler.- Mary White
