The shape of a story

Body

Also: body copy

The main run of a story after the intro, where the detail, quotes and background are laid out in order of importance.

The body is everything between the intro and the end. In hard news it follows the inverted pyramid, most important first, so a sub can cut from the bottom without losing the story. In features it has more room to breathe, but it still has to keep earning the next paragraph.

Simon on this

Where Simon Townsend teaches this in the archive: