by Rana Williamson

Created on: March 10, 2009

Articles written for Helium blend the best elements of the traditional journalist's inverted pyramid with the strong organizational elements of essay-style blog posts. This hybrid writing, further strengthened by sub-headings and bullet points, is particularly well suited to being read on-line.

*The Inverted Pyramid*

The inverted pyramid style of writing forms the mechanical basis of good journalistic composition.

1. Start with the lead, which encapsulates the point of the story in one sentence.

"A fire at 123 Somewhere Road on Monday, March 1 destroyed three buildings and killed a security guard on duty at the Industrial Stuff Warehouse."

2. Subsequent paragraphs supply the pertinent details, growing increasingly general as the story progresses.

"Three fire engines were dispatched to fight the blaze, which originated in the boiler room of the Washes Stuff Laundry and spread to the Industrial Stuff Warehouse."

3. Save the most general information for the last paragraph.

"This was the second fire on Lots of Businesses Road this year. In January, a one-alarm fire destroyed Mac's Quick Cafe in the same block."

The inverted pyramid style of writing evolved from the need to edit newspaper copy to fit available space. By getting the most important information at the top of the story, editors could cut paragraphs off the bottom to make the copy fit on the page without compromising the integrity of the narrative.

*Blog / Column / Essay Writing*

Blogs, on the other hand, are more akin to editorial column writing or the standard academic essay. While still characterized by a "hook" or "lead" in the first paragraph, really good blog posts are more likely to follow the standard essay composition advice: tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them.

Structurally, these posts have:

- an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement,

- a narrative that develops the argument expressed in the thesis statement in logical progression,

- and a conclusion that sums up the argument and restates the thesis.

*Helium: The Best Blend of Both*

Articles written for Helium blend the efficient elements of the inverted pyramid with the structural logic of the blog post / essay. Because Helium articles are read on the computer screen, top-rated offerings benefit from sub-headings and bullet lists, which serve as an outline of the essay and facilitate scanning of the article for the most pertinent information. This formating has been widely popularized by web sites and works particularly well for on-screen delivery.

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