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The inverted pyramid is a graphical metaphor that is most often used to illustrate how information should be arranged or presented within a text, in particular within a news story. Despite the name, almost always the figure is drawn simply as an equilateral triangle with an apex pointing downward, rather than as a three-dimensional pyramid in perspective. News style is the prose style of short, front-page newspaper stories and the news bulletins that air on radio and television. ...
Perspective is the choice of a single point of view from which to sense, categorize, measure or codify experience, typically for comparing with another. ...
The triangle's broad base at the top of the figure represents the most substantial, interesting, and important information the writer means to convey. The triangle's orientation is meant to illustrate that this kind of material should head the article. The tapered lower portion illustrates that other material should follow in order of diminishing importance.
This format will allow the less important information to be more easily cut out of the article to fit a fixed size (number of words, printed size, etc.,).
The hourglass is another figurative paradigm for a different type of text construction.
History Historians argue over when the form was created. Many insist the invention of the telegraph sparked its development by encouraging reporters to send the most important facts first. If the transmission was interrupted, the main focus of the story would survive. Studies of 19th century news stories in American newspapers, however, suggest that the form spread more widely several decades later than the telegraph, possibly because the reform era's social and educational forces encouraged factual reporting rather than more interpretive narrative styles.(Errico) In addition, having less-essential facts at the end simplified the process of cutting a story after it had been set in type; it could be simply trimmed from the bottom. Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ...
Chip Scanlan's essay on the form at the Poynter Institute includes this frequently-cited example of telegraphic reporting from the New York Herald on April 15, 1865: The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835 and 1924. ...
April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ...
1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ...
This evening at about 9:30 p.m. at Ford's Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathburn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President.
The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre.
The pistol ball entered the back of the President's head and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal.
The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now dying.
About the same hour an assassin, whether the same or not, entered Mr. Seward’s apartment and under pretense of having a prescription was shown to the Secretary’s sick chamber. The assassin immediately rushed to the bed and inflicted two or three stabs on the chest and two on the face. It is hoped the wounds may not be mortal. My apprehension is that they will prove fatal.
The nurse alarmed Mr. Frederick Seward, who was in an adjoining room, and he hastened to the door of his father’s room, when he met the assassin, who inflicted upon him one or more dangerous wounds. The recovery of Frederick Seward is doubtful.
It is not probable that the President will live through the night.
General Grant and his wife were advertised to be at the theatre...
As you can see, 'who,' 'when', 'where', 'what' and 'how' are addressed in the first paragraph. As the article continues, the less important details are presented. An even more pyramid-conscious reporter or editor would move two additional details to the first two sentences: That the shot was to the head, and that it was expected to prove fatal. However the transitional sentence about the Grants suggests that less-important facts are being added to the rest of the story.
The inverted pyramid is somewhat similar in principle to the spiral approach sometimes used in teaching, where the important, basic facts are covered first and reemphasized often to help get them encoded into long-term memory. The spiral approach is a technique often used in teaching or textbooks where first the basic facts of a subject are learned, without worrying about details. ...
In education and psychology, learning theories help us understand the process of learning. ...
The broad definition of memory consolidation is the process by which recent memories are crystallised into long-term memory. ...
Long-term memory (LTM) is memory that lasts from over 30 seconds to years. ...
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