Introducing the Wall Street Method...

This time, we'll look at feature leads and stories in a different way. One example of a feature story with the "Wall Street Journal formula" is here:

Link to article "After a death, an extreme form of grieving" from The New York Times- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/health/29grief.html?_r=1&hp

The Wall Street formula is basically taken out of the same format as stories are written in the Wall Street Journal. It's the basic structure of a feature story that uses an anecdotal, descriptive or narrative lead. To explain this concept, briefly look over the article, then read the details below.

The article with the link above has an anecdotal lead with a statistic before leading into the story of a psychiatrists who deal with people with grief disorders. Then by the second paragraph, the reader is introduced to a psychiatry professor from Columbia University who has found something on people who are in "a loop of suffering" after a loved one dies. That just pulls the reader in even more to find out about what that is.

The nut graph following that a couple of paragraphs later describes why grief should be separate from everything else when it comes to problems and death. The preceding paragraph made a statement about how some doctors didn't believe that idea when the nut graph showed some additional facts from researchers to prove that they're wrong. There are symptoms and difficulties that patients are feeling when they experience it. That really gives an idea why it's so important. For some people, it's hard getting over death that grief is too hard to take as well. That is the kind of grief that lasts much longer than people normally take.

Later into the story, it zeroes in on one of the patients- a woman from New Jersey was suffering from this kind of grief ever since her son died from cancer. She said in the story that she felt guilty about living and she moved around like a zombie. The body continues to explain the story with quotes and facts about the situations with her, other patients, and the doctors' and researchers' findings.

It finally ends with a final note with one of the same psychiatry professor who began the talking first. She says at the end that if she had the exact same problem, she would want help as well.