Writing the lead : what is the summary lead, English

Assignment Help:

Writing the Lead

The summary lead

The lead, or the introduction, is the key to writing an effective news report. The way you write a lead depends on the type of report you're doing. For a "hard news" story-a fire, hijacking, presidential veto, the landing of a probe on Mars-you write what's called a summary lead. This gives readers a complete overview of the story, including the Reporter's Questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How (emphasized according to their importance in the story).

The summary lead is crucial in formats like daily newspapers, because readers often don't finish the whole article, but want to know right away what's going on. Be sure that you don't "bury the lead"-that is, don't make readers wait until the second or third paragraph before they can fully tell what the story is about.

Summary leads are difficult to write, because you have to cram the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How into the standard lead length, which is around 35 words or less. The lead should be one or two sentences at most.

Examples of summary leads

    Calling it a victory for family values, President Clinton yesterday signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, which guarantees employees of larger companies unpaid time off to care for sick or injured family members.

Notice that while the summary lead is easy to understand, it sacrifices some style points to the more important goal of fully informing the reader. The reporter's questions are covered, though to varying degrees:

    Who: President Clinton

    What: the Family and Medical Leave Act and its purposes

    When: yesterday

    Where: (covered in the dateline, which tells you the place and date of an event before the text of the story)

    Why: to support family values

    How: while calling it a victory for family values

In this story, the "Who" and the "What" are the most important points; since the President conducts most of his legislative business in Washington, there's no need to emphasize the "Where."

In another story, say about flooding in Northern California, the "Where" would be more important:

Hundreds of families in northern California's Napa Valley fled their homes yesterday, as the Russian River overflowed its banks after a week of torrential rains.

 


Related Discussions:- Writing the lead : what is the summary lead

#title.find the sentence subjects , I need help with the following.what is ...

I need help with the following.what is the subjects of the clauses in the paragraph?In the middle of Germany is the Harz mountain in the range is called the Brocken.The trees that

Sam will eat the pizza, Sam is a picky eater. He will only eat pizza that h...

Sam is a picky eater. He will only eat pizza that haves pineapple, tuna, or both mushrooms and ham, but he will defuse to eat any pizza that haves pepperoni or tomato sauce. Assume

GOTHA IN TOMORROW LAND , I AM WRITING AN ANALYSIS OF ON THIS HOW DO I GO AB...

I AM WRITING AN ANALYSIS OF ON THIS HOW DO I GO ABOUT IT

Exclamatory sentence, can u please give me 5 example of exclamatory sentenc...

can u please give me 5 example of exclamatory sentence

Homework, What are 8 words to build up a vocabulary for a horror genre?

What are 8 words to build up a vocabulary for a horror genre?

OPAC, where and how can we find a opac call number?

where and how can we find a opac call number?

Essay, how to write an autobiography essay.?

how to write an autobiography essay.?

Business communication, what is a suitable title for a thesis about busines...

what is a suitable title for a thesis about business communication

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd