{"id":15831,"date":"2017-09-04T00:50:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T04:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=15831"},"modified":"2021-12-21T12:58:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T16:58:07","slug":"quotes-on-nut-graphs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/how-to-organize-an-article\/feature-story-structure\/nut-graph\/quotes-on-nut-graphs\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes on nut graphs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Quotes

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“I like the nut graph. Readers need a frame around the picture. But the nut graph doesn’t have to be a paragraph. Sometimes the nut graph sticks out like a pig going through a snake. Instead, it can be one elegant line that foreshadows the rest of the story.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism and visiting faculty member of The Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
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“The most important thing in the story is finding the central idea. It’s one thing to be given a topic, but you have to find the idea or the concept within that topic. Once you find that idea or thread, all the other anecdotes, illustrations, and quotes are pearls that hang on this thread. The thread may seem very humble, the pearls may seem very flashy, but it’s still the thread that makes the necklace.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Thomas Boswell, Washington Post<\/em> sports columnist <\/h6>\n
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\u201cThink of nut grafs like the best billboards you\u2019ve seen \u2014 a glimpse of the goodies waiting around the bend. That glimpse can intrigue readers to follow you to the end of your story.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Tina Casagrand, freelance journalist<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe nut can also function like a movie trailer: After introducing the story\u2019s characters and main theses, you can hook readers by foreshadowing tensions, reversals or other suspenseful moments in your story.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Tina Casagrand, freelance journalist<\/h6>\n
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“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then hit it again. Then hit it a third time \u2014 a tremendous whack.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Winston Churchill, British statesman<\/h6>\n
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“The ‘nut’ is supposed to signify the hard kernel of the story, what is at the center. But it’s a clumsy metaphor, because it suggests there is a shell that has to be cracked to get to it.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar of The Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
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“No matter how sizzling your start, eventually readers want the steak; that is, the story needs to be put into context. This essential section is sometimes called the ‘nut graf’ (the ‘graf’ being short for ‘paragraph,’ though it may occupy more than one paragraph). Here you must answer readers’ two crucial questions: What’s it all about, and why should I care?”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 David A. Fryxell, former editor, Writer’s Digest<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“Journalism is the promise to explain the world, not just to tell a story. The nut graph shows your thinking \u2014 it’s the gauntlet you throw down.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Nick Lemann, New Yorker<\/em> writer, and Columbia University professor<\/h6>\n
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“The nut graph is so important, you’d think writers would lavish as much attention on it as they do a story’s lead, opening quote or conclusion. And yet, nut graphs remain tough nuts to crack.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Michelle V. Rafter, business journalist<\/h6>\n
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“A few weeks ago, an editor friend said she’d spent an entire day imagining herself the nut-graph queen \u2014 tiara and all \u2014 dispensing nut graphs with a tap of the wand and a click of the keyboard to every story that had entered her email inbox.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Michelle V. Rafter, business journalist<\/h6>\n
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“Sometimes, lack of a nut graph signifies a bigger problem. If a writer has trouble figuring out what to say in a nut graph it could be because they haven\u2019t figured out what the story they\u2019re writing is about.” <\/h5>\n
\u2014 Michelle V. Rafter, business journalist<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe nut graph is the ‘R.A.,’ as in ‘rat’s ass,’ as in ‘who gives a rat’s ass’ about this story?\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Don Ranly, Ph.D., professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism<\/h6>\n
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“Think of the lead as a close-up. The nut graph is a wide-angle shot.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Chip Scanlan, affiliate faculty member at The Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
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“At The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, reporters and editors called [the nut graph] the ‘You may have wondered why we invited you to this party’ section.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Chip Scanlan, affiliate faculty member at The Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
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“Think of it this way: If I came to your house and told you to grab your things and follow me, how far would you go? To the front door? The driveway? Would you hop in my car without further explanation? <\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.<\/h6>\n
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