Lead writing introduction for news reporting class.

1. LEADS
By Bradley Wilson, Ph.D.
©2013

2. The lead is the beginning of the story.
It serves to summarize the story (news) and
to grab the reader’s attention (feature).

3. The lead is the beginning of the story.
It serves to summarize the story
(news) and to grab the reader’s
attention (feature).

4. “I often want to start in the moment, and start with
the tension up front … My concern all the time is to
bring readers in, to bring them in really fast.”
DeNeen L. Brown, The Washington Post
“Best Newspaper Writing 1999,” Non-Deadline Writing

5. “The lead is more important because you will never
get to the end if you don’t have a good lead.”
Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal
“Best Newspaper Writing 1996,” Editorial Writing

6. “I might write the first sentence 10 different times.
Take a look at it, and it’s not quite right. It’s the right
thought, but it’s not the right wording. Or it’s the right
wording, but it’s not the right thought.”
Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times
“Best Newspaper Writing 2002,” Commentary

7. “Don’t bury your lead…The hook, the thing that makes
the reader interested in reading the story. Hit them
with the news, the peg? Why are you writing this
story? What’s it all about?”
Mark Fritz, The Associated Press
“Best Newspaper Writing 1995,” Deadline Writing

8. Summary
Contrast
Descriptive
Story
…
DIFFERENT KINDS OF LEADS

9. Question
Direct quotation
Second person
“Imagine this…”
KINDS OF LEADSTO AVOID

10. 5W’s and H
Be specific
About 25 words
Active verbs
Summarize
NEWS LEAD

11. SUMMARY LEAD
JERUSALEM, Nov. 4—A right-wing Jewish extremist shot and
killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin tonight as he departed a
peace rally attended by more than 100,000 in Tel Aviv, throwing
Israel’s government and the Middle East peace process into
turmoil.
“Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is Killed” by Barton Gellman
The Washington Post, Sunday, November 5, 1995

12. SUMMARY LEAD
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed along
with three other diplomats Wednesday in Benghazi when a
rocket-propelled grenade struck their vehicle.
The Washington Post, Melissa Bell, Sept. 12, 2012

13. STORY LEAD
A waiter fond of poet Ralph Waldo Emerson attends morning prayers at
his church, steps across the street and hijacks a school bus. Owing
$15,639.39 in back taxes, wielding what he says is a bomb, Catalino
Sang shields himself with disabled children.
Follow my orders, he says, or I will kill the kids. “No problem, I will,” says
driver Alicia Chapman, crafty and calm. “But please don’t hurt the
children.”
The saga of Dade County school bus No. CX-17, bound for Blue Lakes
Elementary, begins.
“Terror Rides a School Bus” by Gail Epstein, Frances Robles and Martin Merzer
The Miami Herald, November 3, 1995

14. DESCRIPTIVE LEAD
The past came to claim Aleksandras Lileikis this week. It
knocked on his door on Sumner Street in Norwood, shattering
his quiet present and shocking the friends and neighbors who
thought they knew the man in the yellow house. It knocked on
all of our doors, pointing to the genocide of more than 50 years,
demanding that we hear the stories and seek the truth.
“A summons from history” by Susan Trausch
The Boston Globe, Sept. 23, 1994

15. DESCRIPTIVE LEAD
Her weight’s gone up. Gray hairs have sprouted. She’s gotten used to flat
shoes instead of heels and eggplant-shaped dresses instead of the gowns
and furs she used to wear. But after a decade in prison for having her
husband killed, Betty Lou Haber, closing in on 50, is still as polite and sweet
sounding as ever.
“There’s never a night that I go to bed and don’t say my prayers,” she said
last week. “I just do the best I can.”
And that’s why Albert Haber’s surviving children are worried.
“A murder story” by David Finkel
St. Petersburg Times, May 26, 1985

16. FIRST PERSON,
CHRONOLOGY LEAD
At 12:30, my husband and I were having a pleasant lunch in a restaurant. At
1:30, we were back home, sitting at the kitchen counter planning a trip to
Vienna and Budapest with cherished friends. At 2:30, I was walking out of
the hospital emergency room in shock, a widow, my life changed forever,
beyond comprehension.
“Facing the void of a life and a love lost in a moment” by Joan Beck
Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1993

17. RESOURCES
POYNTER.ORG
“The Power of Leads” by Chip Scanlan
OWL.ENGLISH.PURDUE.EDU
“How to Write a Lead”