You say nutgraf, I say...

Ask those in the know about the main difference between journalism training in the UK and journalism training in the US, and they'll give you one word: nutgraf.

The nutgraf is strictly definied (at least on the sites that come up on Google) as 'the sentence that summarizes waht the story's about'. But it's much more than that - it's the sentence that tells the reader not just what you're writing about, but why you're writing about it. It places it in context. What's significant? What's changed? Why should they sit up and pay attention to this story?

American journalism students get taught the nutgraf - UK journalism students, at least until recently, do not. But today's MediaGuardian offers one reason why that might be.

Apparently British journalists, at least at the FT, do use the nutgraf as widely as their transatlantic counterparts - they just don't call it that. And being old-school, no-nonsense British journalists, they've given it an old-school, no-nonsense British name.

Welcome, dear readers, to the 'bollocks par'.