Jacqui Banaszynski / American Press Institute

Round up the usual list of newswriting sins: back-in ledes; jumbled organization; lack of clarity; no raison d’etre.

The solution to all is, at core, the nut graf.

I’m on a mission to find a better term, because “nut graf” has picked up a bad rap with some writerly types, who disdain it as formulaic, stodgy, non-literary. But even the masters of long narrative form know how to weave the elements of a good nut into their copy without ruining the flow or their voice. In news, enterprise and feature stories, a nut is like a secret decoder ring. It lets the hapless reader know what the bleep your story is about and why the bleep they should read it.

It’s the Why Does It Matter that gives meaning to the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. Nuts can come dressed as single phrases, explainer sentences, single hard-working grafs or whole sections. They can be meted out, as a friend of mine once said, “like an IV drip,” without needing to weigh down a story like a seven-course meal.

But what they all do is place a story in context. That context can be about timing (why is the story important now?), history (what change does this event signal?), politics (what issue or battle does this address or arise from?), or any other underpinning that gives significance to the raw information. At its simplest, a nut graf is a segue between the lede and the body of the story; it summarizes the significance, background and projected impact of the news.

Still clueless? Complete this sentence: This story is important because … After you’ve finished that thought, erase the crutch and keep going.

Read More …