Don't "Bury The Lead"

Don't bury the key information of a story somewhere in the body of the article -- put it first. Newspaper reporters learn quickly not to "bury the lead" and it's at least equally important for bloggers.

People don't read on the 'net -- they scan, even more so than with newspapers. Make sure the most important information comes first, so it benefits both scanners (most people) and those who decide to read in more detail.

This is sometimes called the "inverted pyramid structure." The most important stuff comes first, and less & less important details come further down.

Look at the following paragraph and compare it to the first of this post:

It's important to put information in the right order. Some writers fail to do this and need to improve. Order is critical in presenting information as some people scan and will miss what's most important. The most important information should come first.

Notice how the "lead" is buried? Someone scanning, i.e. the typical reader on the Internet, would miss the main point, and also be less likely to read further.

So, what is the main point?
    A) Order is important.
    B) Put the most important information first.
    C) Ted thinks he can actually write and is now pontificating on it.

First right answer gets a free copy of my booklet Secrets of Successful Blogging.

Comments

[andyp]

I'm going with b. But this is tricky. You're making my brain do work late in the day.

[The Hairy Beast]

The Beast has learned the following things about writing:

a. Never organize your topics in the form of a list.

b. If you do, use numbers not letters.

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

And the winner is - Andy. Send me an address and I'll get on off to you right away.
The Beast already has a copy.

[The Hairy Beast]

Ted,

The newsy version of the word is spelled "Lede".

From Wikipedia: "To "bury the lede" in writing (particularly in news style) refers to beginning a description with details of secondary importance to the reader, forcing them to read more deeply into a story than they should have to in order to discover the essential point.

Though the spelling "bury the lead" is also common, "lede" is a traditional variation to avoid ambiguity with the chemical element "lead" which was historically used in printing.

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Hi Michael,
As usual, Seth puts it extremely well.

Hey Hairy One,
When someone visits and only looks at one page, it usually shows up as 0 seconds. They may have read that page, perhaps your main page, for 30 minutes, but there is no way to tell. The http protocol simply cannot convey that information -- it just knows the page was requested/downloaded, so it shows up as 0.

[Bill Conerly]

The paragraph isn't even nearly a worst case, because at least it has some important information at the start. The worst offenders I see look like this:

"According to a report in the American Economic Review by Joe Blow and Jane Schmo, professors of economics at Duke University and MIT, respectively, the economy is still at risk of recession."

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Hi Bill,
You're right. Sometime the lead isn't just buried, it's obfuscated. Sometimes I'm left wondering if there even is one!

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Great article my friend, like that saying "dont go around the bushes"...