Jargon of the day: nut graf
The nut graf in a news story is the paragraph that tells readers what the story is about and why they should care. Some papers have rules as to how close this paragraph should be to the beginning of the story.
Nut graf is short for "nutshell paragraph." Meaning, in a nutshell, this paragraph will tell you what the rest of the story will be about. Some newspapers prefer that they nut graf come in the second or third paragraph into the story. Other papers prefer that the nut graf be the first paragraph in the story.
Lately, I have been following a story in the Pocono Record about a shooting in Saw Creek. The most recent story talks about the convection of two suspects in the case. The nut graf in this story comes in the third paragraph and said the following:
"After six days of seeing evidence and hearing testimony from 40 witnesses, the jury deliberated for less than four hours Wednesday before finding Harinarain, 19, and Culver, 20, guilty of second-degree murder, robbery, burglary, criminal conspiracy and carrying guns without licenses. They convicted Culver also of prohibited possession of a gun, since Culver has a juvenile criminal record."
This paragraph could be considered the nut graf because it pretty much sums up the rest of the story and informs the reader what is going on.
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