JOURNALISM LEADS

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JOURNALISM LEADS

• How To Write Amazing Leads

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Their Purpose

• A lead or lede grabs the readers attention.
• It is the most important part of an article.
• If it is not good, risk losing reader.

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NEWS LEADS
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• Always the what of the article, but can include
  the other 4 Ws and the H
• Who
• Where
• When
• Why
• How

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The What Lead

• The What of the article.
• -Example
• Troop levels in Iraq would remain nearly the
  same through 2008 as they have been through most
  of the war, senior officials said.

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The Who Lead

• A person, place, or thing.
• Helps if the who is well-known.
• Example
• Senator John McCains fact-finding trip offered
  an opportunity to signal his support of Israel to
  Jewish and evangelical Christian voters back
  home.

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The Where Lead

• Use on rare occasions only when place is most
  significant.
• Example
• South Africa is trying to balance the liberty of
  patients with tuberculosis against the need to
  protect society.

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The When Lead

• Use rarely, only when circumstances make it
  interesting.
• Example
• When football coaches gather to talk about the
  team these days, their cocktail of choice may be
  Maalox. They worry as they debate how to fire up
  a team that hasnt one a game in three years.

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The Why Lead

• Using the motive or cause for a lead.
• Example
• In an effort to teach Shakespeare to sophomores,
  English teacher Gina Hatley and science teacher
  Phil Barnes reenacted the love scene between
  Romeo and Juliet.

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The How Lead

• Starts with the method by which something is
  accomplished.
• Example
• By flunking every course, missing 62 days of
  classes, and assaulting two teachers, Junior Sam
  Hunt gravely endangered his eligibility for high
  school basketball.

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FEATURE STORY LEADS
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What is a Feature Lead?

• More poetic. A natural extension of the story.
• Doesnt have to be the what, but has to entice
  reader.
• Dont follow as many rules as news stories.
• Relevant, fits mood, and grabs attention
• More types than news leads.

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Feature Leads Include

• Allusion (Literary and Historical)
• Contrast
• Pun
• Description (Sight, Person, Event)
• Capsule (Punch Lead)
• One Word
• Miscellaneous Freak Leads

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• 8. Parody Lead
• 9. Direct Address
• 10. Staccato
• 11. Anecdotal Lead
• 12. Sequence (Narrative)
• 13. Then and Now
• 14. Question
• 15. Quote

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Allusion (Literary)

• Relates person/event to character/event in
  literature.
• Example
• To have been ordered into battle to attack a
  group of windmills with horse and lance would
  have seemed to Joe Robinson no more strange an
  assignment than the one given to him Thursday by
  Miss Vera Newton . . .
• ?Allusion to Don Quixote

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Allusion (Historical)

• Relates person/event to character/event in
  history.
• Example
• Washingtons trip across the Delaware was
  childs play compared with Dave Jasons span of
  the Big Lick River.

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Contrast Lead

• Compares extremes
• Example
• His wealth is estimated at 600 million. He
  controls corporations operating in more than 20
  nations. Yet he carries his lunch to work in a
  brown paper bag and wears the latest fashions
  form Sears and Roebucks bargain basement.

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Pun Lead

• Uses a play on words to capture reader.
• Example
• Western Highs trash collectors have been down
  in the dumps lately.

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Description Lead (Sight)

• Detailed description of what is seen.
• Example
• The road to nsukka in eastern Nigeria is rutted
  and crumpled, the aging asphalt torn like ragged
  strips of tar paper.

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Description Lead (Person)

• Detailed description of a person, usually the
  main character of the story.
• Example
• The imam begins his trek before dawn, his long
  robe billowing like a ghost through empty
  streets.

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Description Lead (Event)

• Detailed description of an event.
• Example
• The air inside the darkened gymnasium is heavy
  with the heat of an uncommonly prolonged North
  Carolina summer.

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Capsule (Punch) Lead

• Blunt, explosive statement to summarize article.
• Example
• The Beatles are back!

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One Word Lead

• Blunt, explosive word to summarize article.
• Example
• Awesome. Thats the best term to describe the
  Rattler girls basketball team, which notched its
  15th consecutive win Friday night.

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Miscellaneous Freak Leads

• Begin with uncommon or odd statement.
• Example
• For sale one elephant. The City Park
  Commission is thinking about inserting that ad in
  the newspaper.

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Parody Lead

• Copies well-known proverb, quotation, or phrase.
• Example
• Whisky, whisky everywhere, but nary a drop to
  drink. Such was the case at the City Police
  Station yesterday when officers poured 100
  gallons of bootleg moonshine into the sewer.

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Direct Address Lead

• Speaks directly to reader on appealing subject.
• Example
• Do not expect any pity from the weatherman
  today. He forecasts a continuation of the butter
  Arctic cold wave that has gripped the city for a
  week.

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Staccato Lead

• Jerky, exciting phrases used if facts justify it.
• Example
• Midnight on the bridgea screama shota
  splasha second shota third shot.

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Anecdotal Lead

• Uses event to represent universal experience.
• Example
• It was 1965 and the Dallas Cowboys were making
  good use out of an end-around play to Frank
  Clarke, averaging 17 yards every time a young
  coach named Tom Landry pulled it out of his
  expanding bag of tricks.

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Sequence (Narrative) Lead

• Puts reader in midst of action.
• Example
• On a frozen morning in hilly rural Wisconsin,
  the dead deer lay stacked in a pile, like so much
  garbage. Big and brawny, these whitetail bucks
  and does should be prizes. But the hunters who
  shot them are afraid to take them home.

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Then and Now Lead

• Shows progress over time.
• Example
• The Rio Grande once flowed through there, a wide
  and robust river surging between steep banks as
  it followed a southward course hugging the
  states curvy profile.

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Question Lead

• Use when story has direct relevance to reader.
• You think you have it bad? Consider Ron Mullens.
  Once vice president of a major real estate
  corporation, today his is penniless.

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Quote Lead

• Usually avoid them.
• Quote should capture theme of story.
• Example
• People usually have two completely different
  opinions of what my life must have been like
  growing up, said actress Joely Fisher, 28, a
  child of the short, unhappy union between Connie
  Stevens, the sex kitten of 1950s TV, and Eddie
  Fisher, the singer and former matinee idol.

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GENERAL TIPS
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• Immediately grab readers attention.
• Give reader hard facts so they will continue
  reading.
• Each paragraph built on previous one.
• Dont write two leads, or be repetitive.
• Dont write a warm-up paragraph. Cut to the
  chase.

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Do

• Be specific concrete (especially with
  descriptions).
• Convey energy action.

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Dont

• Use too much detail.
• Use abstract/general language.
• Be vague.