{"id":15260,"date":"2017-04-10T00:55:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T04:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=15260"},"modified":"2021-12-21T13:17:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T17:17:08","slug":"quotes-on-the-body","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/how-to-organize-an-article\/feature-story-structure\/feature-article-structure\/quotes-on-the-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes on the body in feature article structure"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers and others say<\/h2>\n

\"Quotes

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\u201cComprehension and composition bear a reciprocal relation to each other.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Robert C. Calfee, Ph.D, professor of education and psychology at Stanford University<\/h6>\n
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“Strengthen your core.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
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“Hello all you writers with flabby middles and saggy bottoms. You are part of a giant club of writers (I am president for life) whose stories too often are out of proportion. In fact, I realized today that my book manuscript had a structural problem. The last three chapters had shorter writing explanations than the first 18 chapters. So I’m worried that I’ve got the top heavy thing perching on a broomstick.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
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“The middle [often] has no recognizable sequence of ideas, no flow of cause and effect, and no narrative, just puddles of information.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, Poynter Institute; and Don Fry, writing coach<\/h6>\n
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“Reporters who only know one form, the inverted pyramid, don’t write middles because inverted pyramid stories don’t have middles (or endings). They just waddle along and trickle off to nothing. \u2026 Their middles tend to have clumps and knots rather than sections of information.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Don Fry, writing coach<\/h6>\n
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“While the inverted pyramid is the worst form for readers, the ‘stack of blocks’ is the best in terms of reader comprehension. The stack has three parts: beginning, middle, and end. The middle contains the information grouped by subject matter into parts arranged in logical order. The beginning predicts the middle in form and content, and the ending cements the main points into the readers’ memories.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Don Fry, writing coach<\/h6>\n
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“Avoid the muddle in the middle.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ann Wylie, writing coach<\/h6>\n
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