Note, please, that a lead should be written in ordinary English, not the clipped phrasing reserved for headlines like “Main Street home destroyed in early morning fire.” Headlines, which appear in large print above the stories they introduce, are written that way to conserve space. Example: “Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning.”.Rule #1: A straight news lead should be a single paragraph consisting of a single sentence, should contain no more than 30 words, and should summarize, at minimum, the most newsworthy “what,” “where” and “when” of the story. Rule #6: If what’s in the lead needs to be attributed, place the attribution at the end of the lead.Rule #5: The lead should summarize the “why” and “how” of the story, but only if there’s room.Rule #4: If there’s a “who” involved in the story, the lead should give some indication of who the “who” is.Rule #3: The lead’s first verb - the same one that expresses the main “what” of the story - should be active voice, not passive voice.Rule #2: The lead’s first verb should express the main “what” of the story and should be placed among the lead’s first seven words.Rule #1: A straight news lead should be a single paragraph consisting of a single sentence, should contain no more than 30 words, and should summarize, at minimum, the most newsworthy “what,” “where” and “when” of the story.But I broke the rule to emphasize my point. The statement I just wrote, for example, is a fragment.
So will breaking one or more of them, but only if you do it intentionally and for a specific purpose. You can also watch my approximately 15-minute, YouTube-hosted video lecture explaining the rules.įollowing these rules will help you write a good lead every time. Below are six rules for writing good straight news leads.
But most media writing students begin by learning the simplest and most common style: the straight news lead. Journalists use many different styles of leads, depending on the situation. Every news story begins with a lead (pronounced LEED), so learning to write a good lead is the first step in learning to write a good story.
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