The opening of a news story is called the lead. It is usually one paragraph, and is usually only one sentence. The typical lead is called a summary lead or straight summary lead, and it, of course, summarizes the story. The journalist must, therefore, write a clear, fairly short sentence that reveals all, telling the end result of the story. Someone should be able to read the lead and be informed about what happened without reading the rest of the story.
A news story essentially has two parts, the lead, which gives the gist of the story, and the body, which adds details which expands on information given in the lead. The body is written in inverted pyramid style: short paragraphs in descending order of importance.
A summary lead should answer as many of the 5W's and H as possible: who, what, when, where, why and how.
When writing the lead, you should attempt to feature the feature, which mean to put the most important aspect or main point first in the paragraph. Grab the reader's attention with the news immediately, without making him or her read through introductory words to find out what happened. Newspaper readers expect to be informed about what happened immediately -- no beating around the bush.
Leads should:
In order to write an effective lead,open with bright, interesting, colorful nouns and verbs
Depending on what you decide is most important, any one of the 5W's or H could be featured, which means it is placed first in the opening sentence.
Take
a look at the follow facts:
Who: Washington television station What: withdrew from a project to construct a 1,200-foot television transmitting tower When: today Where: in Silver Spring Why: declining revenues How: board of directors decided
The
lead might read:
| 1 | When the who is featured, it
is called a name lead.
The example above is a name lead. It features the Washing television station. |
| 2 | When the what is featured, it
is called an event lead.
Withdrawal from a project to construct a 1,200-foot television tower in Silver Spring was announced today by a Washington television station. This lead, however, is awkward because it is in passive voice; in other words, the doer of the action (the Washington television station) is at the end of the sentence as the object. Active voice requires that the subject of the sentence act, which means placing it first in the sentence, as in the first first example. |
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3
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When the when is featured, it
is called a time lead.
Today a Washington television station announced its withdrawal from a project to construct a 1,200-foot television transmitting tower in Silver Spring. |
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4
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When the where is featured,
it is called a place lead.
A Silver Spring project to construct a 1,200-foot television transmitting tower was cancelled today by a Washington television station.This, too, is passive rather than active voice. |
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5
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When the why is featured it is called
a cause lead.
Because of declining revenues, a Washington television station announced its withdrawal today from a project to construct a 1,200-foot television transmitting tower in Silver Spring. |
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6
|
When how is featured, it is
called a manner lead.
After a decision by the board of directors of a Washington television station, a project to construct a 1,200-foot television transmitting tower in Silver Spring has been cancelled. |
The most used openings for leads are the who and the what.
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Below are examples of leads which feature the various 5W's & H. The words that make up the "W" that is featured are in bold face type. |
WhoReckless drivers who don't seem to be drunk may well be high on cocaine or marijuana, according to roadside tests that indicate drugs may rival alcohol as a hazard on the highway.WhatMonica Lewinsky, the former low-level aide at the center of the current White House investigation, is willing to submit to a polygraph examination in exchange for complete immunity from prosecution, her lawyer said Sunday.
A pack of wild monkeys terrorized a seaside resort town south of Tokyo last week, attacking 30 people and sending eight of them to the hospital with bites. (This also co-features the who.)Why
A Soyus spacecraft docked flawlessly with the Mir space station Saturday, bringing a fresh crew of two Russian cosmonauts and a Frenchman to the orbiting outpost -- along with a bottle of French wine.
With more amateurs cutting wood for use as an alternative to high-priced heating oil, hospitals are coping with an increasing number of injuries due to chain-saw accidents, reported the American College of Surgeons.HowLouisiana-Pacific Corp. plans to sell seven out-of-state lumber mills and expand production at 17 others in order to boost output by up to 40 percent. (The how in this lead is also the what.)Examples of when and whereleads are not given here because you should avoid using them. Professionals avoid them, so examples are hard to find.
Incorrect:
Sen. Robert Brown spoke to the assembled student body of Oakdale High School at 3 p.m. in the high school gym.Who spoke is usually secondary in importance to what was said. And, the mechanical details -- time, date and place -- do not necessarily have to be included in the lead, since the event has already taken place. They can be worked in later, perhaps the second or third paragraph. "Assembled student body" is a burdensome, unnecessary phrase, and "high school" is used twice in one paragraph. Avoid repetition.
Incorrect:
At 3 p.m., March 18, in the high school gym, Robert Brown spoke.Time and date (the when angle) are almost never important enough to merit first consideration in the lead, yet they are often used to kick off a speech story. The heart of this story is not included in the lead at all. Note, too, that in this reference the title for Robert Brown (senator) has been omitted. Titles should always be included on the first mention of an individual in the story.
Incorrect:
To further our interest in ecology, Sen. Robert Brown spoke today in the high school gym.The why angle is usually not the most important aspect of a story and, therefore, it seldom works as the take-off point for a news story. Also, the use of second person (our), unless it's in a direct quotation, should be avoided in news writing.
Incorrect:
Last Friday, March 18, all of the sophomore, junior and senior students assembled in the gymnasium. After Student Body President Gary Winchman led the students in the flag salute, Vice Principal Barry Jones presented Sen. Robert Brown, who talked about ecology.This is filled to the brim with details that don't belong in a lead to a speech story. It is basically written in chronological order rather than focusing on the "feature." It is dull, too long, and needs severe copy editing. In fact, it needs complete rewriting.
Incorrect:
"We must clean up our rivers and streams and get the internal combustion machine out of the automobile and sit hard on the Food and Drug Administration to remove additives from our foods if we are ever going to clean up the air we breath and make our world a pleasant place to live in again," stated Robert, senator, to the assembled student body of Oakdale High School on Friday, March 18, in the gym at 3 p.m.The quotation is too long, covers too many subjects for the lead. In addition, mechanical details such as date and time, can be worked in later. Since the event has already happened it is not necessary to tell the readers the place and exact time in the lead. "Stated" is a stuffy, greatly over-used word for attribution. Save it for quoting material from official documents rather than people.
Correct
Example:
Pollution must be stopped and air and water cleaned up in order to make the world more liveable, Sen. Robert Brown told students at Oakdale High School last Friday.This lead zeroes in on the main message delivered, which is what the audience would be interested in, and it gives the source at the end of the lead rather than at the beginning.
ACTIVE
VOICE
The secret of active voice is to make the subject of the sentence perform. Make the subject act rather than be acted upon. What this means, for the most part, is that the person or thing doing the action appears first in the sentence.
The match was won by senior Jake Standish.
At dawn the crowing of the rooster was heard.
The test was taken by all the French classes.Notice that the verbs (won, crowing, taken) are accompanied by a helping verb (was, in this case). This is a clue that you may be in passive voice.
When you see the main verb accompanied by was, were, is or are, make sure to evaluate whether it is written in active or passive voice. Find the person or thing doing the action, place it first in the sentence, and write a simple subject/verb sentence.
Caution: Just because a sentence contains is, are, was, or were does not necessarily mean it is in passive voice. For example, the sentence,
Senior Susan Patterson is the winner of the speech contest,
is not passive voice. Also, be sure to distinguish between past tense and passive voice. The following sentence is past tense:
Senior Susan Patterson was the winner of the speech contest.
Senior Jake Standish won the match.
The farmer heard the rooster crow at dawn.
The rooster crowed at dawn.
All French classes took the test.
Fewer words are used, so it is shorter and saves space. (Passive voice is often awkward.)
2 Each sentence is more crisp and forceful. (Passive voice robs a sentence of power.)
Occasionally in journalistic writing, the situation calls for a passive voice verb. Injuries, deaths and natural disaster often fall into this category. In such instances, the passive voice is preferred because the subject has been the victim of the action. For example:
The 12-year-old was kidnapped.In such cases, those receiving the action are more important than those performing the action.The elderly woman was struck on her way home.
Five children were trapped in the burning house.
The special prosecutor was taken by surprise.
| When writing the lead, make
sure you remember the
NINE TRAPS TO AVOID |
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| 1 | Avoid overcrowding
the lead.
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| 2 | Don't begin with
a generality.
General |
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| 3 | Be wary of figures.
Before a crowd of 4,000, Fremont's Pathfinders trampled Roosevelt's Rough Riders 42-6 for the state high school football championship.Figures must be placed in context. Is this a large crowd, or is the stadium only half full? InconclusiveAlso, don't slow the pace by overcrowding figures. There are 3.5 million eligible voters in the state, of whom 1.7 million are over 18, yet only 391,000, or less than 25 percent, are registered to vote. |
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| 4 | Don't back into the
lead.
Backing into the lead means the lead has not been written with the most important information first. In other words, the writer has not featured the feature. If a writer backs into the lead, the most important information is often near the end of the lead paragraph, when it should be first. Also, remember that news comes first, attribution second. Not the greatest |
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| 5 | Don't bury the lead.
Burying the lead is even worse than backing into the lead. Burying the lead means the writer places the major element several paragraphs down in the story. Not the greatest |
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| 6 | Avoid "question"
leads.
The question lead is an overworked tool of the lazy writer. The reporter's job is to inform, not ask questions. The question lead works best if the article focuses on answering the question posed in the lead. How can auto insurance rates be lowered?It's also best if it can be answered quickly. Will Riverside annex the Brockhurst subdivision? The city council decided last night that the answer is "No."It can, however, be used quite effectively, often with a feature approach. What is born in dung, makes love in flight, has no sting, and doesn't travel before 10 in the morning? The love bug, that's what. The pesky, little, windshield-smearing, radiator-clogging love bug. |
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| 7 | Don't write negative
leads.
Don't report what didn't happen or what won't happen, or you are likely to confuse the reader, who may misread or misremember. ConfusingUse a more positive approach. Better |
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| 8 | Avoid quotation leads.
Quotation leads, too, are cop-outs by lazy writers. Quotations rarely capture the essence of a news story in a succinct manner. Occasionally, however, a quote can provide a powerful opening: "Dying is beautiful," Lyn Helton confided to her tape recorder, "even the first time around, at the ripe old age of 20."For most instances, however, rather than relying on a quotation, a reporter's paraphrase can brighten, shorten and clarify what the source said: Children are not cocktails that need shaking to be good, a physician warns. |
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| 9 | Beware of "phrase"
leads.
At a meeting of ASB officers yesterday, the president resigned because he plans to graduate and enter college early.Be wary of phrases such as: In a unanimous vote. . .The phrase lead essentially forces the writer to back into the lead. |
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Read the reporters' notes for the three stories that follow.
In each story, select facts to answer each of the 5 W's and H questions.
Be sure you select the most important facts in each story from the many
included in the notes. The notes are in the abbreviated form a reporter
might use for jotting down information from a news source, so they don't
necessarily follow journalistic style.
