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.
- Last night the Carolton City Council held its regularly scheduled meeting.
On the agenda was the discussion of a new computer for City Hall.
The first sentence has a couple of problems. First, it starts with a WHEN statement (Last
night). Second, it is not really news. Wasn't the City Council supposed to meet?
That's why it is called a "regularly scheduled" meeting. Instead, focus on
results. The second sentence/paragraphs fails to do that, too. Don't say the council
discussed something. Say what they did based on what it discussed. Give us some real news.
It bears repeating because you'll get sloppy in your writing and won't do it: Focus on the
results. Here is a better example of how to start that story:
- The Carolton City Council decided Tuesday night to purchase a new computer for City
Hall.
The new $225,000 computer will be used for all city budgeting and financial planning.
Note that in two short sentences we've covered the basics of this story. If the reader
reads nothing more he/she walks away with the most important information.
Types of Leads
This semester we're going to focus on learning the Summary Lead and many of its
variations. There are other types of leads that are perfectly legitimate, just as
there are other forms of news writing than the inverted pyramid. But the inverted pyramid
style of writing with the basic summary lead is good meat and potatoes for news writing.
We're going to take a look at a variety of ways to start that story before we dig into the
summary lead. They include:
- Basic Summary Lead
- Naming Lead
- Delayed Identification Lead
- Blind Lead
- Quote Lead
- Question Lead
- Anecdotal/Question Lead
Basic Summary Lead
The basic summary lead is a brief inclusive statement of what the story is all about. it
answers most of the important WHOs, WHENs, WHATs, WHEREs, WHYs and HOWs. There are three
variations of the summary lead:
- Naming Lead
- Delayed Identification Lead
- Blind Lead
Naming Lead
The naming lead is a summary lead that names and identifies people, organizations,
concepts, etc. The key is that BOTH name and identification are used in the same
paragraph. The problem with this kind of lead is that it can lead to long paragraphs,
especially if the person, organization or concept you are talking about has a long title
or description. For example:
- City Clerk Donna Williams received approval Tuesday for the purchase of a new $225,000
computer for City Hall.
The computer will be used for all city budgeting and financial planning.
The title "city clerk" and name "Donna Williams" are both in the same
paragraph. It works here because the title is pretty short. But what if her title were
something like Director of Finances and Accounting and Clerk of Records? All those extra
words would clutter your first paragraph and get in the way of what you really want to
say.
Delayed Identification Lead
This is a summary lead that shuns detail. The subject, organization, concept is named in
the first sentence/paragraph, but the identification is withheld until the second or third
paragraph. The advantage of this is that it allows for shorter, easier to read paragraphs.
Here is an example:
- Donna Williams received approval Tuesday for the purchase of a new $225,000 computer for
City Hall.
The Carolton city clerk said that the computer will be used for all city budgeting and
financial planning.
Here we have used the name in the first paragraph, but have delayed the
identification/title (hence the name) until the second paragraph. Yet, even without
repeating Williams' name in the second paragraph it is still clear we are talking about
her.
Blind Lead
This is a summary lead in which the subject, organization or concept is identified in the
first sentence/paragraph, but is not actually named until the second or third paragraph.
Again, we have the advantage of shorter, easier to read paragraphs.
- Carolton's city clerk received approval Tuesday for purchase of a new $225,000 computer
for City Hall.
Donna Williams said that the computer will be used for all city budgeting and financial
planning.
And once again, it is clear that Williams is the city clerk.
It is sometimes confusing to remember what a blind lead is. Just remember it is the
opposite of the delayed identification lead, which is easy to remember because the name
describes the action.
Next we'll look at some other leads. But first a word of warning. For these examples I
have made up some information. I'm the teacher. I can do that. You cannot do that with
your writing exercises. It is okay to add information that logically flows from the facts
that are presented, but you cannot make up information.
Quote lead
The quote lead starts off immediately with an interesting quote --whether from a key
source or a famous quote -- as the first sentence/paragraph. The problem with quote leads
is that you usually then have to explain the quote to the reader, who has no idea yet what
the story is about. Use quote leads sparingly and only if you have a dynamite quote that
makes sense without explanation. Even in the following example, the quote needs
explanation:
- "We needed a new computer and now we'll get it," City Clerk Donna Williams
said Tuesday.
She had just received approval for the purchase of a new $225,000 computer for City Hall.
The computer will be used for all city budgeting and financial planning.
(Note that this quote lead is also a naming lead.)
Here is an example of what NOT to do with quote leads. It is an example from an April
Fools edition of the paper my students once did.
- Tom Adamo is still in shock. "I'm still in shock," he says.
He says he still has to pinch himself to see if he is dreaming. "I still have to
pinch myself to see if I am dreaming."
Adamo has been selected to replace Mick Jagger in the Rolling Stones. "I've been
selected to replace Mick Jagger in the Rolling Stones!"
Unfortunately, you sometimes see real stories almost as comical because writers do not
distinguish well between setting up a quote and following the setup. We'll talk more about
that later this semester.
Question Lead
Sometimes also called the recipe lead, the question lead starts story with a question and
then usually answers it. Sometimes several questions are strung together, thus the
nickname "recipe lead" (take a little of this and a little of that and what do
you get?).
- What do you do when you need to crunch more numbers and do it faster and faster?
If you are City Clerk Donna Williams you ask the Carolton City Council for approval to
purchase a new $225,000 computer for City Hall.
The computer will be used for all city....
The problem with the question lead is that if the reader cannot answer the question you
risk losing him/her. You want to use question leads sparingly.
(By the way, the above example is one where you can legitimately add information that
logically flows from the facts.)
Here is another example of what NOT to do with the question lead. This is a real life
student story.
- What radio station in Santa Clara Valley took over station KFAT and claims to be in
between a hard rock and a soft place?
Can't guess? Maybe this will help. Who are the two disk jockeys who host a morning show
and do skits with characters like the Godfather, Sleazo the Clown, and Uncle Weazy?
Still can't figure it out? Here's another clue: These two deejays will be the guest hosts
of this year's Spring Raver.
Still can't guess? Then you have never listened to Kelly and Kline of KWSS.
The problem with the question lead is that if the reader cannot answer the question you
risk losing him/her. Or, the reader may not like your question and will say, "I don't
care." In this example I remember thinking. "I don't know the answer to that
first question." The real problem was that I didn't know the answer to the second
question, either . . . . and by the time I got to the third question I felt pretty stupid
and did not want to read any more of this story.
Anecdotal Lead
The anecdotal lead, sometimes called the descriptive lead, starts off with a little story
about an individual associated with the story. The anecdote is used to set up a scene,
mood, etc.
The LA Times recently had a front page article, for instance, that talked about a
new employer practice of having employees who are dating each other sign a contract that
they will not sue the employer if the two break up. It started with this anecdotal lead:
- After discovering this spring that two of his executives were involved in an adulterous
sexual relationship, the owner of a Los Angeles manufacturing company acted swiftly.
(Notice the blind lead approach?)
But he didn't take the time-honored tack of transferring, rebuking or firing one or both
lovers. Instead, he asked them to sign a two-page contract --an "informed
consent" agreement intended to crimp their ability to sue the company if their
relationship turns ugly.
--LA Times, Sept. 28, 1998
One newspaper that is exceptionally good at use of the anecdotal lead is the Wall
Street Journal. Often looked at simply as a financial newspaper, the WSJ actually has
some of the best writing in newspapers today. Every issue of the paper contains a couple
of anecdotal leads on the front page.
The paper also uses a different writing style than the inverted pyramid format. The
article starts off with a story about an individual and then expands into a more global
story. It then transits back to the individual for the close of the story, something that
inverted pyramid stories lack.
The problem with the anecdotal lead is that the anecdote sometimes take time to develop.
If it takes too much time you lose the reader. You need to get to the point of the story
quickly.
- Donna Williams missed dinner three times last month as she worked to get out bills for
the city.
Two weeks ago her family offered an ultimatum: Put in less overtime or put a bed in your
office.
She decided it was time to ask the Carolton City Council for approval to....
I'm particularly fond of a good anecdotal lead. Unfortunately, you won't have a lot of
opportunity to write many in this class. To write one you have to be able to ask the right
questions of the sources of your story. With the workbook assignments you don't get a
chance to do that. You are simply given a set of facts. And remember, you cannot make up
information. You can learn an important lesson here, though: People make news, focus on
them in your leads.
Answer and e-mail the following questions to me.
- The lead is the hardest part of the story to write. What are some of the reasons the
lead is the most important?
- What are some of the different types of leads?
- What is a no-news lead?
- What are the three forms of the summary lead?
- What is the absolute only lead you must always avoid in this class?
rCameron@cerritos.edu
