In lecture three, we touched upon the nut graf (And yes, that's an accurate spelling, more slang left over from the printing-press days). This paragraph grounds an article – or blog post – briefly sketching out the who, what, when, where and why. It runs early, typically as the second paragraph, and gives the reader a framework for what's to come. Ken Wells, a writer and editor at The Wall Street Journal, described it as “a paragraph that says what this whole story is about and why you should read it. It's a flag to the reader, high up in the story: You can decide to proceed or not, but if you read no farther, you know what that story's about.”
Often called "the heart of a story," the nut graf sets the context. And that's especially important in blogging, where readers may be parachuting into any given entry via a search engine – or consuming more recent posts ahead of old ones, as they scroll down from the top. Remember the discussion about the man from Mars? The nut graf is his cue card.
Here's an example of how this can work, even in a very short post anchored around a punny travel episode. I've italicized the nut-graffy bits:
BIHAC SLAPPED
PLITVICKA JEZERA, Croatia – "Veliki Slap," the sign reads: Big Waterfall.The jokes are inevitable, especially after lunch in Bihac, Bosnia...
The slap is nice, as slaps go. The 70-meter cascade lies inside the Plitvicka Jezera National Park, a chain of 16 peacock-colored lakes.
Though occupied by Serb forces from 1991-1995, the park's landscape remains fairly unspoilt. Boardwalks snake across the water, teeming with trout. Heron skim among the travertine cliffs. We hike a few miles, then catch the last pontoon boat down the dusky lake.
Pure magic. As it should be. I make some quick calculations: income lost by rejecting the guidebook gig + savings about to be spent.
We've just enjoyed a $4,000 day in the Balkans.
Here's a newsier excerpt from Craig Romano's World Hiker. Notice how he leads with a position statement, explains the politics, then continues with his rant. That formula may be familiar from your school days. It works in English classes – and works online too...
You have to love the way our system works sometimes (Insert sarcasm here).
The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, a bill that would have established two million acres of new wilderness and make the Pacific Northwest Trail and the New England Trail National Scenic Trails among other things - a bill that had wide bipartisan support (73-21) in the Senate was defeated in the house by 2 votes.
Final Vote 282 For
144 Against
6 Not VotingIf it had 282 votes for it-then how could it have possibly been defeated you are probably thinking. Well - you are going to love this - the bill failed in the House of Representatives this week by roll call vote. The vote was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill, needing a two-thirds majority. Something that usually occurs for non-controversial legislation.
Repeat after me:
Un - insert a common profane modifier here - believable!... (read full post here)
Louche weighs in with a giddy diary-style example. He leads with some in media res excitement, then – very blatantly – flashes back to explain what's up.
I am hungover. Actually that isn't entirely correct, I am still drunk. I am ruined man, who has had about 20 minutes of sleep of sleep and will have to go into quite a serious meeting this afternoon. I didn't mean for it to end up like this but it did. Let me start at the beginning.
If I'm being honest it probably started to get dangerous around lunch time. For some reason it seemed like an excellent idea to skip any real food and just have a coffee. This would come back to haunt me later when the idea of some sort of starchy ballast to absorb drink would be terribly welcome.
... (read full post here)
Art: Plitvicka Lakes, Croatia. Copyright Amanda Castleman, 2006.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment