Practice / 1 min read
The sentence underneath the chart.
On the small piece of writing that turns an observation into something useful.
A surprising amount of reporting comes down to writing one useful sentence. Not a grand conclusion. Just a line that helps someone understand why they're looking at this chart.
It's easy to write 'coverage increased' under a chart showing coverage increasing. I've done it. It doesn't give the reader very much they couldn't already see.
What can I actually say?
I start by going back to the material. Which stories travelled? Was there one source behind the change? Is this genuinely new interest, or the same article appearing in more places?
Then I try to write the smallest explanation the evidence can support. What happened, why it matters, and what I still don't know. The last part belongs in the report too.
Make it easier to follow.
A good line doesn't need to sound impressive. It needs to give the reader somewhere to go next: a question to ask, a message to check, a story to look at more closely.
That's usually the sentence I spend the longest on.