Apologies to “Lord of the Rings,” but you must know this principle. Use it, and your readers will say “My preciousss…” when reading your emails or letters. Forget it, and you’ll seem like Gollum on a bad day.
Here it is: Inverted Pyramid.
Or, “Big News First.”
The opposite of inverted pyramid is story structure. People love stories. But most business readers are time poor; they just want the main point, and fast. Write in story structure and your main character could be “delete.”
Stories follow “pyramid” structure, going from context, to supporting information, to climax (the “big news”).
But news journalists write with inverted-pyramid structure; they lead with the Big News First, then backfill with progressively less important information.
So if you write to your boss, explaining that your project is going well, don’t say this:
- “Since we started XYZ project, we’ve had various financial, logistical and HR problems… [etc.] But we solved them, and the project’s going well and is on track.”
What if she’s too busy to get to the good news? She’ll just read the bad and think you’re struggling. So say the big news first, giving her the option of not reading it all if she’s swamped:
- “XYZ project is on track to be completed within budget. We’ve overcome various financial, logistical and HR problems… [etc.]”
Apply Big News First to most things you write, and your readers will love you for saving them time.
Have your say…
…below! And to kick off the conversation: When shouldn’t you use inverted pyramid?
5 thoughts on “One rule to rule them all”
Heya Paul. Nice post. I tend to use the inverted pyramid approach, but I think it depends on your audience and objectives. I started writing a long comment, but decided to write a blog post of my own, instead. http://www.divinewrite.com/blog/copywriting/inverted-pyramid-storytelling-copywriting-approach/
To summarise my post, I think story-telling may work better when you have to educate as well as sell… I’d be interested to hear your thoughts (and the thoughts of your readers).
Cheers, Glenn (Twitter: @divinewrite)
That’s a great point, Glenn. It does depend on your audience. It depends on how much they know already (so your point about educating is spot on), and it especially depends on reader reactions. If you give them the big news first, what will their reaction be – satisfaction, or no interest? If no interest, consider story telling/selling.
Inverted pyramid is the “default” mode I encourage our students to apply – probably to about 90% of their normal, everyday business writing.
But persuasive writing is a different animal. As you say, the “whole persuasion slippery slide.” Persuasive writing is a process, and a story can be used as part of that process, to get attention, build interest and desire, encourage readers to identify with your story’s protagonist, etc.
Nice one Paul and congratulations on the new blog. When wouldn’t you use the inverted pyramid? – – I actually can’t think of anywhere, except if you are actually writing a story. So I’m all ears/eyes to find out. However, I get so impatient with sales pages that give me loads of guff without getting straight to the point in the first paragraphs (what it is and how much it costs) and then allowing me to choose if I want the full story, the history, the testimonials etc.
Thanks Wendy. I hope some of the other comments from Glenn and I have shed light on your question.
Your point about being impatient with sales pages that don’t let you choose what to read (the main points, the story, history, etc) is a good one. Some news stories are actually written in a way that can be useful here. It’s called “hourglass” structure (visualise an inverted triangle on top of a triangle), and is explained in more detail here.
They start in inverted-pyramid fashion, giving the big news first (e.g. “The first cow has made it into space…[second most important point]; [third most important point]”), then flip into story telling (“Daisy Butterbell was thrilled. ‘I’ve always wanted to jump over the Moon,’ she said…etc”).
As I said in a previous comment, it’s all about reader reactions. If you suspect your business reader may be annoyed by you launching into a story because they have unanswered questions (e.g. what’s this about? How much is it? Is it relevant to me?), then answer those up front, and then follow with a story about someone like them who had similar problems, in the hope that they’ll identify with them.
Thanks Paul. I guess it’s horses for courses.