Chapter 09 True/False Self-Quiz

. Inverted pyramid stories arrange the information in descending order of importance or newsworthiness.

. The primary advantage of the inverted pyramid is that readers with less than a high school education can easily understand stories written in this style.

. Generally, the second paragraph in a news story does not need to emphasize the news because this has already been done in the lead.

. Journalists should avoid devoting the entire second paragraph of a story to background information.

. The term kicker can have two meanings: It can refer to an additional line set above the main headline of a story that helps draw attention to the story or it can refer to the ending or the story itself.

. Reporters often use lists in news stories that involve several ideas, subtopics or examples.

. The hourglass story structure begins with a chronology or sequence of events and then turns into an inverted pyramid.

. The hourglass style is particularly useful in writing stories that have no meaningful chronology.

. The focus style story begins with a lead that focuses on a specific individual, situation or anecdote and uses that to illustrate a larger problem.

. It is easier to cut the final paragraphs of narrative stories than those of stories written in the inverted pyramid style.

. Stories which are written in the narrative style tend to be longer and, therefore, more difficult to read than shorter, straight news stories.

. The success of a narrative story depends on the depth of the reporting.

. Reporters should avoid words that are not used in everyday conversation.

. When a sentence must describe several items in a list, the explanation should come after the list, not before it.

. Journalists should not use numbers in stories about abstract issues because they will likely confuse the reader further.

. Nouns and verbs are more effective when writing descriptions than adverbs and adjectives.

. If a story contains information critical of an individual, that person must have an opportunity to respond.

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