The Wall Street Journal Formula

A House Like A Pocketknife

This article, titled "A House Like A Pocketknife", is about Edgar Lyall and Liz Wise who renovated their Los Angles house into a futuristic, yet vintage style house. This article represents the Wall Street Journal Formula first and foremost by its anecdotal lead. The article starts off by introducing Lyall and Liz, then it progresses into the "meat" of the story. In the fourth paragraph is where the nut graph is found, this is the spot that bridges the story together. The audience is presented with the reason for the remodeling and why it was important. The nutgraph in this case explains that the couple wanted to renovate their house, they had certain standards but had to work around strict perameters.
As the story progresses it using quotes and detail to back up the nut graph. For instance paragraph 6 says, "In 2007, banks were only too eager to grant large loans for expansive remodeling. Mr. Lyall and Ms. Wise could have doubled their square footage with a second story, but they resolved to do the absolute minimum: a 675-square-foot addition."
Finally the end of the article comes back to the beginning by reinforcing the ideal premise of the story. Furthermore explaining how the couple renovated their house to meet their standards, but packed it all into a strict perameter; just like a pocketknife.