An intro to news writing (Part 3) — breaking the rules

The news writing style dictates that we say everything up front in the first sentence or two, using the all-important WWWWWH structure. Adopting this style exerts discipline and structure on the writer and, in turn, gives a certain discipline and structure to what is written. 

However, if you’ve tried this technique for yourself — and tried to get all of the WWWWWH elements into your opening sentence — you’ll no doubt have come to the conclusion that it can be, at times, difficult to do. Indeed, for some stories it can be bordering on the impossible. As good as it is, it can sometimes be a bit, well, clunky.

So, here’s the magic of news writing. Once you’ve learnt how to do it…once you’ve mastered the technique…once you’ve accepted the discipline of news writing…once you can get WWWWWH into a single sentence…you can start breaking the rules. The key to this is understanding what rules you’re breaking —  and why. 

Omitting some WWWWWH

Let’s go back to the plastic wine bottle story. Technically, it’s an example of a news intro because it contains WWWWWH:

The Green Wine Co-Op announced today that it has teamed up with a US company to launch a plastic wine bottle in the UK, a move which it claims could help cut its carbon footprint.

But, we can eliminate some elements of WWWWWH without damaging the integrity of the intro. Firstly, we can remove the When …

The Green Wine Co-Op announced today that it has teamed up with a US company to launch a plastic wine bottle in the UK, which it claims could help cut its carbon footprint.

So now it reads:

The Green Wine Co-Op has teamed up with a US company to launch a plastic wine bottle in the UK, which it claims could help cut its carbon footprint.

We don’t need an explicit When because it’s there in the form of the present perfect form ‘has teamed up’, which shows that the ‘teaming up’ has happened and is still ongoing. And if The Green Wine Co-Op was a well-known brand that was a household name in the UK, we could also drop the Where:

The Green Wine Co-Op has teamed up with a US company to launch a plastic wine bottle, in the UK which it claims could help cut its carbon footprint.

So that it now reads:

The Green Wine Co-Op has teamed up with a US company to launch a plastic wine bottle, which it claims could help cut its carbon footprint.

Compared to the technically correct version we started with, this slimmed down version is much snappier without any loss of meaning. And yet it still holds its integrity.

Spreading your intro over two lines

Of course, there are times when you might want to spread the WWWWWH over two, or maybe three, sentences. That's fine, as long as you understand that the longer it takes to get to the point, the greater chance you have of losing your reader. 

That said, the advantage of this more relaxed approach is that it gives you — the writer — the scope to provide some supplementary information that may otherwise be buried in subsequent paragraphs. 

It’s impossible to say which WWWWWH elements should be retained, relegated or rejigged. What’s more, the way you break the rules for one story can differ enormously compared with another. But even the plastic wine bottle story can be split over two sentences:

The UK-based Green Wine Co-Op — which last year opened more than a dozen shops in France — announced today that it has teamed up with a US company. 

The transatlantic tie-up heralds the launch of a plastic wine bottle, which both companies say will help cut carbon emissions.

Yes, it still adheres to the WWWWWH inverted triangle structure. But it also dispenses with any unnecessary stiffness. It gives ‘the story’ room to breathe, which helps to create something that is far more full-bodied and rounded — much like a decent bottle of Malbec or Merlot.  

By shifting the emphasis and moving ideas around, it’s possible to play with the structure of news writing. And once learned and understood, it’s where you can unshackle yourself from its rigidity without losing any clarity or structure. 

This series of blogs concentrated on learning the technically correct WWWWWH inverted triangle approach to writing so lauded by Nielsen. 

To recap:

• Although it’s technically correct to use all six of the WWWWWH in an intro, in reality, you don’t have to. Depending on the story, some elements of the WWWWWH are more important than others. You can pick and choose from them, based on their relevance to the story. That said, just because some of them are less important than others, it doesn’t mean they are redundant. It just means they can be inserted into the story later on.

• There is no set order for the WWWWWH. It can be in whatever order you like but, ideally, you do need at least two of the six for your intro to make any sense.

• You can split the WWWWWH over two sentences if that helps.

• If you break the rules, you have to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.