| Writing Leads |
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Leads with an emphasis on types of summary leads We studied the inverted pyramid style of writing, where we put the most important or most interesting information at the top of the story and the least important at bottom. Now we're going to look at the toughest part of that structure: the lead, or beginning of the story. Got a mental block with writing? It is probably just getting started that is holding you up. Write a good lead and the story sometimes writes itself. Ever have a term paper to write for a class and put it off until the last minute? Odds are that you are having trouble just getting started. But once you have the outline, and get going you may have found that it flowed easily. Same thing with a news story! The lead is not only difficult, it is the most important part of the story. Studies show that when we look at newspapers (or almost anything else we have the discretion to read or not read) we tend to scan headlines or titles. In a newspaper, for instance, you probably scan the headlines of a page to decide which stories you MIGHT read. Then you read the opening sentence or two and consciously or unconsciously decide whether to read on. Most stories fail this test. You're not interested, so you move on. When you write a great story you want people to read it. You may be at the mercy of an editor when it comes to the headline, but you are fully on the line when it comes to getting the reader interested beyond that. Your lead must grab the reader by the neck and scream, "READ ME!" But your lead has to do more in newspapers. You have to live with the reality that most readers will not read your entire story, so you've got to summarize the story quickly for the reader. We call this a summary lead, one that tells the whole story in just a couple of sentences/paragraphs (remember, most news paragraphs in a news story are just one sentence long). In just a few words you have to tell the reader the 5Ws and the H -- Who, When, What, Where, Why and How-- or at least most of those. How to start a lead How you start your lead is important, too. The first words out of your mouth, so to speak, tell the reader what you think is the most important information of those elements. Most leads should start with WHAT is going on or WHO is involved. You could start with WHY or HOW something is happening, but you usually have to first explain to the reader WHAT is going on before they understand it. Likewise, you could indicate WHERE something is happening, but the reader must know WHAT is happening before he/she can make sense of the WHERE. And while WHEN is very important to the story and should be somewhere in the first paragraph or two, you still have to indicate the WHAT before the WHEN becomes important. Not that you don't see stories that start with WHEN. A lot of writers start their stories with WHEN. It often is the easiest way to start a story. It is also often the worst way to start a story. It is usually a sign of lazy writing. While there are actually a couple of assignments we'll work with this semester that legitimately could start with WHEN, you aren't allowed to. I want you to think about your leads. Any story that starts with a WHEN statement will have to be re-written. You also need to avoid starting your stories that offer little or no news. We call these no-news leads. Following is an example of what NOT to do. The basic information in the lead and other examples below come from workbook exercise 4.8. You might want to look at those facts. |
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