Lesson 3 of 7 · about 15 minutes
Structure: Pick the Shape Before You Pour
You'll be able to
- Write a nut graf that tells readers why the story matters now
- Build an inverted pyramid story that survives being cut from the bottom
- Use the hourglass to deliver news first and then tell it in time order
- Pick narrative or explainer structure when the story calls for it
- Outline a story in blocks before drafting
Structure decides the order a reader learns things. Get it right and a reader can follow a complicated zoning fight without effort. Get it wrong and a simple rate hike becomes a maze.
Pick the structure before you draft. You would not frame a house and then decide where the stairs go.
The nut graf
Every structure except the plainest breaking brief needs a nut graf. It is the paragraph that steps back and tells the reader what the story is about and why it matters now. Writing coach Chip Scanlan, in a Poynter piece on the form, lists its jobs: justify the story, connect the lede to the rest, explain the timing, and set up the evidence.
After a hard news lede, the nut graf is often the second or third paragraph, adding the context the lede had no room for. After an anecdotal lede, it is the hinge where the scene ends and the story begins.
Example: a nut graf after an anecdotal lede
(The lede: Carol Mertz and her shoebox of water bills.)
Mertz is one of about 3,100 residential customers who will pay more starting July 1. The 22 percent increase, approved 3 to 2 Tuesday, will fund a $4.1 million plan to replace cast iron mains laid in the 1960s, according to district manager Dana Ruiz. It is the district's second increase in two years, and the vote split the board over whether the district waited too long to start saving.
That paragraph tells the reader the scale (3,100 customers), the change (22 percent), the reason ($4.1 million plan), the timing (July 1, second in two years) and the conflict (the split board). Everything after it develops one of those.
Inverted pyramid
The oldest and plainest form. Most important fact first, then the next most important, down to the least. An editor short on space can cut from the bottom and lose the least valuable material. A reader who quits after four paragraphs still knows the news.
Use it for breaking news, meeting stories, short hits, anything where the facts matter more than the telling. Nobody will call it glamorous. It works anyway.
A typical order for a meeting story:
- Lede: the change and its impact.
- Nut graf or second paragraph: the context and the reason.
- The best quote, from whoever made the decision or is most affected.
- The other side: who opposed, and why, with their best quote.
- Supporting detail: numbers, history, documents.
- What happens next: dates, deadlines, how readers can weigh in.
- Lesser items from the same meeting, briefly.
Notice that "what happens next" sits above the minor items. Readers often need it more than another quote. Some editors put it in the second or third paragraph when there is a public deadline coming.
Hourglass
Roy Peter Clark named this form in 1983, and Scanlan describes it in three parts: a top that summarizes the news like an inverted pyramid, a turn that signals the shift to story, and a narrative that tells events in time order with detail.
It fits stories that have both news and a sequence of events: a fire, a rescue, a meeting that went sideways, a crash. The top serves the reader who wants the facts. The bottom serves the reader who wants to know how it unfolded.
Example: the turn
Top (paragraphs one through four): two people were hurt in a house fire on Orchard Lane early Saturday, the cause is under investigation, the home is a total loss, and a neighbor pulled one resident out a window.
Turn: The fire began in the garage a little after 2 a.m., according to the Halvern Fire District's incident report and interviews with two neighbors.
Narrative: At 2:07, Tom Brecker woke to his dog barking...
The turn tells readers the story is about to switch to time order, and it names where the account comes from. Without attribution, the narrative reads as if you were there.
Narrative
A pure narrative tells a story start to finish, with scenes, characters and tension, and holds a nut graf near the top so the reader knows why it matters. It suits long features and investigations where the reporting is deep enough to rebuild scenes accurately.
The danger is self-indulgence. Every scene must earn its place by moving the story or revealing something. And you need the reporting: if you write that the commissioner "paused and looked out the window," you need a source who saw it. Invented detail in a nonfiction narrative is fabrication, however small.
Narratives end on a kicker, a final paragraph chosen to leave the reader with something. A good kicker is often a quote or a small image that echoes the lede. A bad kicker summarizes. Do not summarize.
Explainer
An explainer answers how or why. How the property tax levy is set. Why the road bond needs a two-thirds vote. What a recall petition requires. There is no single new event, so the structure follows the reader's questions instead of a timeline.
The trick is ordering the questions the way a confused reader would ask them. Start with the one they arrived with. Then the one that answer raises. Subheads phrased as questions help readers jump to what they need.
Example: explainer outline
Topic: the Fenwick County road bond.
- What is on the ballot? (The bond amount and what it buys, in two sentences.)
- What would it cost me? (Per-home estimate, with whose estimate it is.)
- Why does the county say it needs this? (Plow ages, road condition ratings.)
- What do opponents say? (Their strongest case, in their words.)
- How much does it take to pass? (The vote threshold, linked to the statute.)
- When and where do I vote?
Choosing
| Story | Structure |
|---|---|
| Vote, arrest, closure, announcement | Inverted pyramid |
| Event with a sequence: fire, crash, rescue, chaotic meeting | Hourglass |
| Long feature or investigation with strong scenes | Narrative with nut graf |
| Confusing process, no new event | Explainer |
| Upcoming election or vote | Explainer, or delayed lede into inverted pyramid |
Outline in blocks
Before drafting, list the story as blocks of a few words each. "Lede: 22 percent, $102." "Nut: 3,100 customers, $4.1M plan, second hike." "Ruiz quote on pipes." "Abbot no vote." "Rate history." "Next: July 1, bills mailed June." Move the blocks around until the order feels right. Then draft each block.
Watch for clumps. A draft with all the quotes in one stretch and all the numbers in another forces the reader to hold claims in their head until the proof arrives. Put each number next to the claim it supports, and each quote next to the point it reacts to.
Try it
- Take the Halvern school start time facts from the ledes lesson, or your own story.
- Outline it twice in blocks: once as an inverted pyramid, once as an explainer with question subheads.
- Write the nut graf for each version. It should name scale, change, reason and timing.
- Decide which version serves readers better the week of the vote, and which serves them better six months later when the new schedule starts.
- Paste your inverted pyramid draft into Article Values Graph and see where the weight falls. If the graph shows the bottom half of your story carrying more weight than the top, your order is probably upside down.
Current: In the News
External resources
- "Chapter 11: Writing a News Story, Style, Ledes, and The Inverted Pyramid", Colorado Community College System (Pressbooks). A free textbook chapter on the inverted pyramid and how to order a news story.
Check yourself
1. What does a nut graf do?
The nut graf is the context paragraph. It connects the lede to the larger story and tells the reader why they should keep reading.
2. Why is the inverted pyramid built so that it can be cut from the bottom?
Material runs in descending order of importance. Readers who stop early still get the news, and an editor short on space trims from the end.
3. A house fire last night injured two people, and firefighters have a detailed timeline. Which structure fits best?
The hourglass gives the news on top for readers in a hurry, then turns to a time-ordered account for readers who want the full story.
4. A reader search shows people do not understand how the property tax levy is set. Which form is best?
Explainers answer how something works, in the order a reader's questions come up. That fits a confusing process with no single new event.
5. In the hourglass, what is the turn?
The turn hands readers from the news summary into the chronology, usually with attribution like 'according to the fire report.'
6. Your draft has three quotes in a row from three different people, then all the numbers in one block at the end. What is the likely fix?
Blocks of all quotes or all numbers are hard to read. Each fact should sit next to the point it proves.
Terms in this lesson
- Nut graf
- A paragraph near the top that says what the story is about, why it matters and why now. Also spelled nut graph.
- Inverted pyramid
- A structure that puts the most important facts first and the rest in descending order of importance.
- Hourglass
- A structure with a news summary on top, a short turn, and then a chronological account. Named by Roy Peter Clark.
- Explainer
- An article that answers how or why something works, organized around the reader's questions.
- Kicker
- The final paragraph of a feature or narrative, chosen to leave the reader with something rather than to summarize.
Sources
- Chip Scanlan, The Nut Graf, Part I (Poynter) checked 2026-10
- Chip Scanlan on the hourglass story form (Poynter) checked 2026-10