> Again, nothing against Trevor. Obviously he's not the only person who
> writes this way. I just can't figure out why journalists do this. I
> really would prefer to have my facts served up in a rapid, clear,
> orderly fashion, without a lot of extraneous cruft. Nothing against
> Robin either, but it's not really important to the overall Linux story
> for me to know that Robin has a big belly, drove a cab, and lives in a
> double-wide. A story without Robin, or Bill, or me, or Smitty would have
> conveyed the essential information adequately.
I tend to write in an "hourglass" format most of the time, which means I
start out focusing on the main topic (Linux), then spout some facts and
that sort of thing, then move to personalities/human interest, then
close with more facts and a conclusion of some sort.
The least important, most cuttable material is in the middle of most of
my stories.
In an "inverted pyramid" style, which is the most common breaking news
format, you start with the most important facts and move down your notes
in decreasing order of importance until the least important item (big
belly? Paul's outfit at the lasdt meeting?) at the end, so the end of
the story can be cut off without taking out any important information.
This style was developed as a convenience for typesetters back in hot
metal days.
The "focus on personality" style Trevor used tries to humanize an
otherwise dry story. I rarely use it unless the person's personality is
a major part of the story, but it is common among feature writers.
Discussions about the mechanics of story presentation can get as deep as
programming technique conversations. I go to editorial converations now
and then where this sort of thing is hashed out.
Also, different publications prefer different writing styles. I tend to
like telegraphic brevity and high fact density. Weekly Planet and other
publications may not share my taste, which is only important on OSDN
sites, where I make the editorial rules because I'm the boss editor, and
on the many sites and in the many magazines which (sigh) try to copy our
style.
My training came at the hands of the last "Mencken-trained generation"
of Baltimore Evening Sun editors, a rough crowd that smoked big cigars,
ate big steaks, and prided themselves on their ability "to write an
interesting story about a blank white wall if there was space that
needed filling by deadline."
Take away the audience interaction stuff, and I am an old-fashioned
reporter, not modern in any way. I will stop now before I say something
like "Oy! Kids these days!" and move from journalism to how code used to
be tight because memory was precious, and young programmers throw in all
sorts of needless crap real he-man programmers would never consider.
This may be coming to mind because I was out drinking tonight with some
old-line Unix guys (I'm at LinuxWorld) who were heavily into that rag
after the third beer...
- Robin
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