The Workbook for News Reporting and Writing is very helpful in practicing the skills which we are learning in my News Writing class. We have had several assignments already this term that dealt largely with the inverted pyramid as well as the idea of creating leads at the begining of stories in order to draw in the reader.
Important Terms Discussed in Text:
Inverted Pyramid-In a straight news story, it's best to get the most important information in your story up to the top-- your reader will often stop reading after the first few paragraphs, so its important that they have a good grasp of the story. Put the least important stuff at the end, and leave the unimportant stuff out altogether
The Headline: Convey the general message in as many words as will fit(usually quite a small space). A headline should be informational, and can be clever, as long as the cleverness does not interfere with the information or earn groans from readers
The Lead: The lead, or the first sentence of the story, is arguably the most important part of the article. Based on the content of that first sentence, a reader will either look deeper into the story, or move on to the next one.
Definitions Provided by Dennis G. Jerz's Website.