Ask a Writer
Q: Recently my manager assigned me to write some material for the web using "inverted pyramid style". I was too embarrassed to admit I don't exactly know what that means. Where does the expression come from?
- A.L.
A: The concept of the "inverted pyramid" has been part of journalism for so long you'd be excused for thinking the Ancient Egyptians came up with it. But strangely enough, there's an interesting tech angle to all this "pyramid" stuff.
Back in the mid-1800s, one of the hottest new technologies was the telegraph. Reporters covering the U.S. Civil War routinely used the "talking wire" to transmit their stories back to head office. The only problem was that the technology wasn't reliable. Often, the telegraph line would go down before the correspondent finished sending his story.
It didn't take long before an enterprising correspondent came up with a solution: he (or she?) made a habit of putting the most important information at the top of the article, followed by less important facts in descending order of significance. That way, if the connection was lost, the newspaper could still go to press with the essence of the story.
We all know that technology today is much more reliable than in the old days. (Hey, wipe that smile off your face!) But seriously, there's an eminently sensible reason why inverted pyramid style is the rule when creating web content - not to mention press releases and the like. Readers today are bombarded with all kinds of information and easily distracted. You're lucky if they read the first few sentences before clicking the mouse or turning the page.
With that in mind, here are five tips for writing snappy web content:
- Keep it short. As a general rule, the word count of web content should be half that of conventional print content.
- Use bulleted lists wherever possible (like this). People like lists because they're easy to scan and quick to digest.
- Keep it fresh. Unlike a printed document, a web page is easy to update. (If your web developers tell you otherwise, consider finding new web developers.) Give your readers and customers plenty of reasons to keep coming back.
- Don't let the graphics overwhelm the text. Good site designers know that images are there to support and reinforce the content, rather than competing against it.
- Spelling and grammar matter. For two weeks last month, the main headline on the homepage of one of Canada's best-known tech -companies trumpeted the results of an "independant" analyst report. Hey, I know money is tight, but did someone repossess the spell-checker?
Ross Laver is a freelance writer and marketing communications consultant, and the author of Random Excess: The Wild Ride of Michael Cowpland and Corel. He spent 21 years in the national media, writing for Maclean's and The Globe and Mail.
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