Editing News style (section)

==Terms and structure==
{{wiktionary pipe|Appendix:Glossary of journalism#Article components|Glossary of article components}}
Journalistic prose is explicit and precise and tries not to rely on jargon. As a rule, journalists will not use a long word when a short one will do. They use subject-verb-object construction and vivid, active prose (see [[Grammar]]). They offer [[anecdote]]s, examples and [[metaphor]]s, and they rarely depend on [[generalization]]s or [[abstraction|abstract]] ideas. News writers try to avoid using the same word more than once in a paragraph (sometimes called an "echo" or "word mirror").

==={{anchor|Heading|Head|Title|Hed}}Headline===
{{Main|Headline}}
The ''headline'' (also ''heading'', ''head'' or ''title'', or ''hed'' in journalism jargon<ref name="Mascarella">{{cite web |url= http://www.writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/002828_07202005.html |title=What the Heck Is a Hed/Dek? Learning the Lingo in Periodical Publishing By Janene Mascarella |work=WritersWeekly.com |date=July 20, 2005 |access-date=July 29, 2009}}</ref>) of a story is typically a complete sentence (e.g., "Pilot Flies Below Bridges to Save Divers"), often with auxiliary verbs and articles removed (e.g., "Remains at Colorado camp linked to missing Chicago man"). However, headlines sometimes omit the subject (e.g., "Jumps From Boat, Catches in Wheel") or verb (e.g., "Cat woman lucky").<ref name="Morrison">{{cite web |last=Morrison |first=Daniel |title=How to Write Headlines and Decks (Heds and Deks) |url= http://infotruck.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/how-to-write-great-hed-and-deks/ |work=Info-Truck: A blog about delivering information—by the truckload}}</ref>

===<span class="anchor" id="Sub-headline"></span><span class="anchor" id="Subheading"></span><span class="anchor" id="Subtitle"></span><span class="anchor" id="Subhead"></span><span class="anchor" id="Subhed"></span><span class="anchor" id="Deck"></span><span class="anchor" id="Dek"></span>Subhead===
A ''subhead'' (also ''subhed'', ''sub-headline'', ''subheading'', ''subtitle'', ''deck'' or ''dek'') can be either a subordinate title under the main headline, or the heading of a subsection of the article.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The American Heritage Dictionary entry: subhead |url=https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=subhead |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=ahdictionary.com |publisher=[[American Heritage Dictionary]]}}</ref> It is a heading that precedes the main text, or a group of paragraphs of the main text. It helps encapsulate the entire piece, or informs the reader of the topic of part of it. Long or complex articles often have more than one subheading. Subheads are thus one type of entry point that help readers make choices, such as where to begin (or stop) reading.

==={{anchor|Callout|Call-out|Pull quote|Pull-quote|Pullquote|Pulled quotation|Pulled quote|Pull quotation}}Billboard===
An article ''billboard'' is capsule summary text, often just one sentence or fragment, which is put into a sidebar or text box (reminiscent of an outdoor [[billboard]]) on the same page to grab the reader's attention as they are flipping through the pages to encourage them to stop and read that article. When it consists of a (sometimes compressed) sample of the text of the article, it is known as a ''call-out'' or ''callout'', and when it consists of a quotation (e.g. of an article subject, informant, or interviewee), it is referred to as a ''pulled quotation'' or ''pull quote''. Additional billboards of any of these types may appear later in the article (especially on subsequent pages) to entice further reading. Journalistic websites sometimes use animation techniques to swap one billboard for another (e.g. a slide of a call-out may be replaced by a photo with pull quote after some short time has elapsed). Such billboards are also used as pointers to the article in other sections of the publication or site, or as advertisements for the piece in other publication or sites.

==={{anchor|Lede|Bury the lead|Bury the lede|off-lead|off-lede}}Lead===
{{Further information|Lead paragraph}}
[[File:Communiqué de presse du Conseil fédéral, 28.02.2020 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Press release of the Swiss government. Typical structure with title, lead paragraph (summary in bold), other paragraphs (details) and contact information.]]

The most important structural element of a story is the ''lead'' (also ''intro'' or ''lede'' in journalism jargon), comprising the story's first, or leading, sentence or possibly two.  The lead almost always forms its own paragraph. The spelling ''lede'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|iː|d}}, from [[Early Modern English]]) is also used in [[American English]], originally to avoid confusion with the [[printing press]] type formerly made from the metal [[lead]] or the related typographical term "[[leading]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001128 |title=The Mavens' Word of the Day |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=November 28, 2000 |access-date=July 29, 2009}}</ref>

Charnley states that "an effective lead is a brief, sharp statement of the story's essential facts."<ref>
{{cite book
| title=      Reporting
| page=       185
| last=       Charnley
| first=      Mitchell V
| year=       1966
| publisher=  Holt Rinehart And Winston Inc
| url=        https://archive.org/details/reporting0000char/page/185/mode/1up?q=effective&view=theater
}}</ref><!----
{{clarify|date=October 2014|reason=Whom is Charnley quoting?}}: no-one(!)
  - nested quotes were superfluous!
          ---->  The lead is normally a single sentence, is ideally 20–25 words in length, and must balance the ideal of maximum information conveyed against the constraint of the unreadability of a long sentence. This makes writing a lead an optimization problem, in which the goal is to articulate the most encompassing and interesting statement that a writer can make in one sentence, given the material with which he or she has to work. While a rule of thumb says the lead should answer most or all of the [[five Ws]], few leads can fit all of these.

Article leads are sometimes categorized into hard leads and soft leads. A ''hard lead'' aims to provide a comprehensive thesis which tells the reader what the article will cover. A ''soft lead'' introduces the topic in a more creative, [[attention-seeking]] fashion, and is usually followed by a [[Nut graph|nutshell paragraph (or nut graf)]], a brief summary of facts.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=q5igJFE66YwC&q=%22hard+lede%22+%22soft+lede%22&pg=PA109 | title=Unzipped! Newswriting|first=Chris|last=Kensler| year=2007| publisher=Peterson's| isbn=9780768924923}}</ref>

;Example of a hard-lead paragraph
:NASA is proposing another space project. The agency's budget request, announced today, included a plan to send another mission to the Moon. This time the agency hopes to establish a long-term facility as a jumping-off point for other space adventures. The budget requests approximately $10 billion for the project.

;Example of a soft-lead sentence
:Humans will be going to the Moon again. The NASA announcement came as the agency requested $10 billion of appropriations for the project.

An "'''off-lead'''" is the second most important front page news of the day. The off-lead appears either in the top left corner, or directly below the lead on the right.<ref name="Slate 1998 Sep 7">[https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1999/09/explaining-today-s-papers.html "Explainer: Explaining Today's Papers"], by [[Scott Shuger]], ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]],'' September 7, 1998, updated December 14, 2005 (retrieved December 28, 2018)</ref>

To "'''bury the lead'''" is to begin the article with background information or details of secondary importance to the readers,<ref>{{cite web| url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bury_the_lede|title=Bury the lede|website=[[Wiktionary]]|access-date=2018-04-08}}</ref> forcing them to read more deeply into an article than they should have to in order to discover the essential points. It is a common mistake in [[press releases]],<ref>{{Cite book|title = Working the Story: A Guide to Reporting and News Writing for Journalists and Public Relations Professionals|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XlOfAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA122|publisher = [[Rowman & Littlefield]]|date = 2014-01-14|isbn = 9780810889125|language = en|first1 = Douglas Perret|last1 = Starr|first2 = Deborah Williams|last2 = Dunsford|pages = 122}}</ref> but a characteristic of an [[academic writing]] style,<ref>{{Cite book|title = News Talk: Investigating the Language of Journalism|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=O1hEMuIqtlcC&pg=PA167|publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]|date = 2010-02-11|isbn = 9781139486941|language = en|first = Colleen|last = Cotter|page = 167}}</ref> where its downsides are often mitigated by the inclusion of an [[Abstract_(summary)|abstract]] at the start of an [[Academic_publishing#Scholarly_paper|article]].

==={{anchor|Nut graph|Nut graf|Nutgraf|"Nut graph"|Nut-shell paragraph}}Nutshell paragraph===
{{Main|Nut graph}}
A ''nutshell paragraph'' (also simply ''nutshell'', or ''nut 'graph'', ''nut graf'', ''nutgraf'', etc., in journalism jargon) is a brief paragraph (occasionally there can be more than one) that summarizes the news value of the story, sometimes [[bullet-point]]ed and/or set off in a box. Nut-shell paragraphs are used particularly in feature stories {{crossreference|(see "[[#Feature style|Feature style]]" below)}}.

==={{anchor|Paragraph|Graph|Graphs|Graf|Grafs|'Graph|'Graphs}}Paragraphs===
{{Main|Paragraph}}
''[[Paragraph]]s'' (shortened as ''<nowiki />'graphs'', ''graphs'', ''grafs'' or ''pars'' in journalistic jargon) form the bulk of an article. Common usage is that one or two sentences each form their own paragraph.

===Inverted pyramid structure===
{{Main|Inverted pyramid (journalism)}}
Journalists usually describe the organization or structure of a news story as an inverted pyramid. The essential and most interesting elements of a story are put at the beginning, with supporting information following in order of diminishing importance.

This structure enables readers to stop reading at any point and still come away with the essence of a story. It allows people to explore a topic to only the depth that their curiosity takes them, and without the imposition of details or nuances that they could consider irrelevant, but still making that information available to more interested readers.

The inverted pyramid structure also enables articles to be trimmed to any arbitrary length during layout, to fit in the space available.

Writers are often admonished [[Lead paragraph|"Don't bury the lead!"]] to ensure that they present the most important facts first, rather than requiring the reader to go through several paragraphs to find them.

Some writers start their stories with the "1-2-3 lead", yet there are many kinds of lead available. This format invariably starts with a "Five Ws" opening paragraph (as described above), followed by an indirect quote that serves to support a major element of the first paragraph, and then a direct quote to support the indirect quote.{{citation needed|date=December 2009}}

==={{anchor|"Kicker"}}Kicker===
A kicker can refer to multiple things:

* The last story in the news broadcast; a "happy" story to end the show.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/broadcastjournal0000thom/page/182 |title=The Broadcast Journalism Handbook: A Television News Survival Guide |last2=Malone |first2=Cindy |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2004 |isbn=0-7425-2506-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/broadcastjournal0000thom/page/182 182]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News|last=Boyd|first=Andrew|publisher=Taylor & Francis|pages=422}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News|last=Stewart, Alexander|first=Peter, Ray|publisher=Routledge|pages=170}}</ref>
* A short, catchy word or phrase accompanying a major headline, "intended to provoke interest in, editorialize about, or provide orientation"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/kicker-definition-meaning|title=How Journalists Are Redefining the Word 'Kicker'|website=Merriam-Webster |language=en|access-date=2019-03-26}}</ref>