Perfecting the Wall Street Journal formula

The Wall Street Journal formula is probably one of the most used feature story structure. The greatest challenge for the writer is to maintain supporting material clearly organized by theme so it does not create an overwhelming mess of facts for the reader to seek through. The WSJ formula is made up of four main sections.

I came across a story in the Washington Post, that used the WSJ formula. This story is presented using a anecdotal lead: "On May 1, 2007, a very different economic era, Janet Faello put her former marital home on the market for $829,000. She and her husband were divorcing.It seemed like a good price for the house, a six-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath ranch in Dix Hills. But it didn’t sell at that price, or at $750,000, where it landed six months later, or at $699,000, where it stands now. " This used a specific example of a case. The nut graf of this story begins in the sixth paragraph. Here, is where the individual example ties in with the main idea of the story. It discusses the main points of the article. The main focus is on the harships sellers are facing due to the eroding home values in the housing market.

The body of the story goes more in depth by providing quotes and facts that support the main idea of the article. "On Long Island, the median sale price of homes in 2008 was $378,688 in Suffolk County, compared with $410,000 the year before, and $455,000 in Nassau County, down from $490,000 in 2007, according to the New York State Association of Realtors."

The article is closed by wrapping the story around with a final quote from Ms. Faello.

"I feel as if I get a little sharper each time,” she said. “The amazing thing is, they’ll see your home and come up with a number they justify by saying they’ve sold homes for that in the area. But list with them, and they’re ready to drop the price.”