Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Is it "Inverted Pyramid Style" or not?

While searching through the NY Times on September 30th, I came across numerous styles of the inverted pyramid style of writing articles, which is a style typically used by journalists. This style consists of:

1. First, a conclusion of the entire story.
2. Next, supporting information of the topic.
3. Last, background and technical details.

The particular article that I found that supports this inverted pyramid style and consistently uses it, was found in the Arts and Music section of today's New York Times. The article itself is about the deal that Walmart recently signed to be the only store nationwide, along with Sam's Club (owned by Walkmart), to sell the new AC/DC version of the popular videogame "Rock Band."
This uses the inverted pyramid style because, it begins with the main idea, or rather the conclusion, that Walmart has agreed to be the only store nationwide to sell the videogame. Later, the article supports this main idea, when the author expands on the idea to explain it more to the reader. He does so by including information about how MTV is also involved in this deal by helping to actually create the game. The article also explains Walmart's part in this whole process, in that they will create a seperate section of all their stores to devote to promoting the new game.
Lastly, the author shows the last part of the inverted pyramid style by, using more supporting details, but also including any history behind this particular topic. Robert Levine, the author, discusses just how successful the first "Rock Band" video game was. He also explains some history behind the popularity of the band AC/DC and how popular they have been recently, by including surprising facts that they have sold more CD's than any other band in the past few years, except for the Beatles! I can't imagine what the hype is going to be with this video game! I know the first "Rock Band" was a huge success!

**I tried to get pictures, but there were none with this article! The link is:
http://tinyurl.com/4myo7v

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