What is a Lead Story?
Summary Lead
This is the most traditional lead in a journalism article. It is to the point and factual. It's meant to give a reader a quick summary of the story in as few words as possible, usually in one sentence in 30 words or less. It contains the most important parts of the story and may give a few opinions. Here is an example:
Washington -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress yesterday that US economic growth appeared to be slowing, heading off for the moment any need to raise interest rates. Wall Street responded with a cheer, sending stocks and bonds soaring.
Single-Item Lead
This lead focuses on just one or two elements of a summary lead. For example, when the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series, their first championship since 1980, a story posted online by the Associated Press began with this single-item lead:
"The Philadelphia Phillies are World Champions again."
Delayed Identification Lead
Sometimes with summary leads, you don't always want to identify the subject straight away. In the above examples, Alan Greenspan and the Phillies were identified because they were important elements of the story. People don't just want to hear that a baseball team won a championship, they want to know which team. However, the subject doesn't have much name recognition, nor do readers care all that much about the subject's name. So, use a descriptive pronoun to identify the person in the lead. Provide his specific name and title in a later paragraph. For example: "A school committee member has filed an assault complaint against a fellow member, accusing her of grabbing her nose and twisting it following an executive session Thursday night. Patricia A. Iannelli yesterday alleged in an interview that fellow committee member Lucille J. Mandeville "grabbed my nose and proceeded to twist my nose" following a rancorous discussion during a closed-door school committee meeting."
Creative Lead
Unless you're writing hard news for a daily newspaper or regularly-updated website, the summary lead just doesn't reel in readers. You need to take a more creative approach. For example: "A late spring snowstorm surprised forecasters and drivers Tuesday afternoon, triggering more than 30 accidents, Cleveland police officials said." Instead, you could try a more creative approach.
Short Sentence Lead
This lead uses one word or a short phrase as a teaser for the rest of the lead. Readers may find this gimmicky, here's an example: "One-fifth of an inch. That's all the snow it took to trigger more than 30 accidents on local roads yesterday as a late spring storm snuck up on Cleveland motorists."
Analogy Lead
This lead makes a comparison between an issue or event you're writing about and something more familiar to the reader. This approach can work well when you have a complex or foreign matter you want to explain. For example in Amsterdam, you would put: "The Netherlands is considering anti-terrorism laws that make the United States' Patriot Act look like a civil libertarian's dream come true."
Wordplay Lead
This lead involves a clever turn of phrase, name or word. However, the reader may think your story is about one thing and then discover it's about something else and get annoyed. Here is an example: "Bill Clinton will finally get taken to the cleaners. So will Dracula and a Playboy bunny. The three are among some 6,000 smoke-damaged costumes that will visit dry cleaners in the next few days, because of a fire that broke out Wednesday night at Morris Novelty, a popular costume and novelty store."
Scenic Lead
This lead begins with a description of the scene surrounding an event. It is typically used for stories about festive events, performances and sports. For example: "Thousands of people waiting to attend the Summertime Ball on a hot sunny day in London."
Storytelling Lead
This starts of by introducing the main characters, the conflict, and th
e setting of the story. This makes the readers feel the drama and want to know what's going to happen next. "Wall Street Journal reporter Angelo Henderson used this approach to begin his Pulitzer Prize-winning article about a pharmacist who is driven to violence by his encounters with armed robbery:
"Get on the ground," a man holding a gun screamed. "I'll blow your heads off if you move."
Dennis Grehl and a co-worker complied. Dreamlike, he found himself lying face down on a cold, gritty black-tile floor, a pistol against the back of his head. "Please, mister, don't make me shoot you," a second gunman threatened. A crazy memory: tiny specks of light floating in the tile; that, and the paralyzing weight of helplessness. Mr. Grehl is a pharmacist, unassuming, mild mannered. A family man with a wife and a daughter. He was being robbed."
Amazing Fact Lead
This opens with an amazing fact that interests the readers, such as: "Sixty percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in Iraq, the highest number since polling on the subject began with the commencement of the war in March 2003, according to poll results and trends released Wednesday."
Startling Statement Lead
This opens with a startling statement that arouses reader interest. For example: "The first thing Elizabeth Moon sees in the morning is the room where her father was beaten to death. It was one year ago yesterday that she and this bucolic town were stunned by the brutal and still unsolved murder of Dr. Alfred C. Moon. The radiologist's naked body was found in his bed, bludgeoned with a lamp. According to an autopsy report, the medical pioneer who brought the CAT scan to Rhode Island died from "blunt force deforming-type trauma" so severe that he had to be identified by dental records. Elizabeth Moon acknowledges that many people think it's "creepy" that her family lives in the house where it happened. To her, the light gray house with aqua shutters on Briarwood Road is not where her father died, but the place where he lived."
Opposite Lead
This type of lead includes opposite views and are often subjective. For example: "Facebook rots the brain, according to a report by a Stansbury University psychology professor. Jim Wallace, honors student and an avid user of the popular website, says that just isn't true."
List Lead
Sometimes instead of focusing on just one person, place or thing, you want to impress the reader with a longer list. For example: "Whenever sixth-grader Vasil Evanoff has a day off from school, he hops into a Cessna 152 and takes to the skies. On weekends, Sue Sumner likes to fly her grandson around the Valley, just to see the sights. There's a special restaurant that funeral director Lincoln Ragsdale Jr. likes to visit for breakfast, but it's 115 miles away from home. He climbs in his Beech Bonanza A-36, and an hour later, he's eating pancakes in Sedona. Evanoff, Sumner and Ragsdale are among the growing numbers of Arizonans piloting small airplanes."
Source used:
http://cubreporters.org/leads.html
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