Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Writing better articles (section)

=== Inverted pyramid ===
{{anchor|News style|Inverted pyramid (news style)|reason=Old section headings that contradict [[WP:NOT#NEWS]]; probably have incoming links.}}
{{see also|Wikipedia:Too long; didn't read}}
{{shortcut|WP:PYRAMID}}
Some articles follow the ''[[Inverted pyramid (journalism)|inverted pyramid]]'' structure of [[journalism]], which can be seen in news articles that get directly to the point. The main feature of the inverted pyramid is placement of important information first, with a decreasing importance as the article advances. Originally developed so that the editors could cut from the bottom to fit an item into the available layout space, this style encourages brevity and prioritizes information, because many people expect to find important material early, and less important information later, where interest decreases.

Encyclopedia articles {{em|are not required}} to be in inverted pyramid order and often are not, especially if a chronological, geographical, or other structure is a better fit. However, a familiarity with this convention may help in planning the style and layout of an article for which this approach is a good fit.  Common examples are short-term events, concise biographies of persons notable for only one thing, and other articles where there are not likely to be many logical subtopics, but a number of facts to prioritize for the reader.

The lead section and many [[WP:Stub|stub]] articles use the inverted pyramid approach at least in part. Consequently, many articles begin as inverted-pyramid pieces and add features of summary style later as the article develops.  Individual sections of an article can also use the inverted pyramid structure so that readers skimming the sections get the most important information first before moving to the next section.