Title: 
Headings: 
Chapter 3: The shape of the news story
Top priority
The inverted pyramid
Advanced news writing
TO SUMMARISE:

Content: The family were asleep at the time. The flames quickly spread and soon the entire house was blazing. etc etc
The reader knows the outcome of the drama in the first sentence of the news story. The background information about how it happened, and why it happened, are filled in later in the story. ^^back to the top
Top priority
News stories are written in a way which sets out clearly what is the top priority news, what is the next most newsworthy, and so on. This makes it easier for readers and listeners to understand. In many societies, people read newspapers and web pages in a hurry. They probably do not read every word, but skim quickly through, reading headlines and intros to see which stories interest them. Some which seem at first glance to be interesting may seem less interesting after a few paragraphs, and so the reader moves on. In other societies, people may find reading a newspaper hard work.