Upside-down Pyramids

1. Find an event-based story in a metropolitan newspaper. Analyse and identify its structures and transitions. Does it include a chronology? Does it include important material deep in the story that has not been foreshadowed?
Story: "Tourist hit by chopper blade". (SMH)
The story does have a strong chronology, but there's a fair amount of information that is not foreshadowed in the beginning, such as details of the invesitgation and even location. The intro includes the basis for the story, then it basically elaborates on the details until the end.

2. Analyse and issue-based story in a metropolitan newspaper in the same way.
Story: "Love, sex and 'the one': is it all about timing?" (SMH)
The story has no chronology, and hardly anything is foreshadowed at all. It has a very informal and conversation structure, and the transitions are relatively smooth.

3. Find four newspaper articles which are constructed on the inverted pyramid model and four which are not. List the main news values in each. Which are the clearest and easiest to read? Why?
Similar to the results for questions 1 and 2, event based articles are more commonly based around the inverted pyramid, and issue based articles are not. So, for the 8 articles I took a look at, there was a clear and fine distinction between the news values for those that incorporated the inverted pyramid and those that did not. The 4 I looked at that didn't, were all human-interest stories, issue based and had a more feature article structure. I found the other 4 that were structured with the inverted pyramid were by far the clearest and easiest to read. This was because the feature articles continued to explore more and more tangents as the article progressed, where as the inverted pyramid based articles listed the basis for the entire article within the intro, and stayed within that for the rest of the article. As a result the inverted pyramid articles had more direction and weren't as 'waffly'. (Like this answer!)

4. List the following facts in what you believe should be their order of importance, and then write an intro and second paragraph.

Ranked:

• The train driver was killed instantly
• The semi-trailer driver escaped serious injury
• The accident occured where the train track crosses Skyline Road, five kilometres north of Hillville
• The incident occured at 2:30 this morning
• The semi-trailer, valued at more than $200,000, was destroyed
• 'It appears the semi-trailer misjudged the speed of the train,' Hillville police constable Jed Blaine said. 'It got about halfway across the track before the collision occurred.'
• The semi-trailer was carrying an undisclosed toxic chemical, which spilled across the roadway, forcing the evacuation of six houses in the area
• The train was carrying uranium ore
• The road was closed for six hours while the wreckage was cleared
• Police said that they were still investigating the accident
• The train driver's name is being withheld pending notification of relatives

A train collided with a semi-trailer on Skyline Road at 2:30 this morning, instantly killing the train driver with the driver of the semi-trailer managing to escape serious injury as the vehicle was destroyed.

'It appears the semi-trailer misjudged the speed of the train,' Hillville police constable Jed Blaine said. 'It got about halfway across the track before the collision occurred.'

Thoughts on the reading.

After doing Intro to Professional Writing, I felt relatively familiar with the concept of the inverted pyramid. However, only recently being educated in the realm of professional journalism, I felt especially interested in learning about alternatives to inverted pyramid reporting, and area the chapter covered which seems less frequently explored in class. As a result I found the chapter helpful, in particular the segment that focused on the alternatives as I felt that was where I my knowledge was most limited.

Another aspect of writing covered in the chapter that I felt I had a lot to learn about, was the idea of utilising 'transitional devices'. Employing word bridges and unifying your points, facts, and pars, was something I was obviously aware of but I knew I could certainly improve on my ability. These areas were most intriging for me, and I gave them special focus when reading through the chapter.