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

1. Allusion (Literary and Historical)
2. Contrast
3. Pun
4. Description (Sight, Person, Event)
5. Capsule (Punch Lead)
6. One Word
7. 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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1. Immediately grab readers attention.
2. Give reader hard facts so they will continue
   reading.
3. Each paragraph built on previous one.
4. Dont write two leads, or be repetitive.
5. 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.