Journalism

Lead Writing 
Journalism

In journalism, the beginning sentences of a news story are everything. Called leads or “ledes,” they must convey essential information, set the tone and entice people to continue reading. If you’re interested in becoming an expert journalist, understanding how to write a lead is a key skill for your toolbox.

Tips for Writing Leads

Below are some helpful hints to keep in mind.

The Five W’s and H

News writing strives to answer “The Five W’s and H:” that is, Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Good leads answer as many of these questions as possible in a single sentence. When writing a lead, it helps to think about which of these facts is the most vital for readers to know.

Keep It Short

A good lead provides all the information the reader requires in just a few words. Ideally, a lead should be between 25 and 40 words.

Keep It Simple

Don’t clutter up the lead with unnecessary adjectives or adverbs. Also make sure that your lead only discusses one idea to avoid confusion.

Write in Active Voice

Avoid all forms of the verb “to be.” Common exceptions including writing about fatalities (“two people were killed Thursday”) and when discussing police activity (“two people were arrested”).  Passive voice is often the result of incomplete reporting.

Structure Your Lead Properly

Put your most crucial information at the very beginning of the sentence. Important secondary information can go in subsequent sentences. Not following this practice is called “burying the lead.” If you need attribution in your lead, make sure it goes toward the end of the sentence because it is less important than the information itself.

Understand the Context

Keep in mind what your readers may already know about your story based on previous media coverage. Write in a way that speaks to these realities and adds relevant, useful information.

Be Honest

Never mislead the reader. If you promise a certain type of information with your lead, you should be ready to deliver.

Once you understand these cardinal rules, you can begin to experiment with style.

7 Types of Leads

Style implies a certain degree of voice and personal ownership over how a story is written. Although there are many ways to write leads, here are seven common approaches.

Straight Lead

Also called the “summary” lead, this is by far the most common and traditional version; it should be used in most cases. It is a brief summary, containing most of the Five W’s and H in one sentence.

“The European Parliament voted Tuesday to ratify the landmark Paris climate accord, paving the way for the international plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions to become binding as soon as the end of this week.”

Anecdotal Lead

The anecdotal lead uses a quick, relevant story to draw in the reader. The anecdote must help enhance the article’s broader point, and you must explain the connection to that point in the first few sentences following the lead.

“At the dilapidated morgue in the northern Brazilian city of Natal, Director Marcos Brandao walks over the blood-smeared floor to where the corpses are kept. He points out the labels attached to the bright metal doors, counting out loud. It has not been a particularly bad night, yet there are nine shooting victims in cold storage.

Journalism comes in several different forms:

I. News

A. Breaking news: Telling about an event as it happens.

B. Feature stories: A detailed look at something interesting that's not breaking news.

C. Enterprise or Investigative stories: Stories that uncover information that few people knew.

II. Opinion

A. Editorials: Unsigned articles that express a publication's opinion.

B. Columns: Signed articles that express the writer's reporting and his conclusions.

C. Reviews: Such as concert, restaurant or movie reviews.

Online, journalism can come in the forms listed above, as well as:

Blogs: Online diaries kept by individuals or small groups.

Discussion boards: Online question and answer pages where anyone can participate.

Wikis: Articles that any reader can add to or change.
The best journalism is easy to read, and just sounds like a nice, smart person telling you something interesting.

Reporting

How do you get the facts for your news story? By reporting!
There are three main ways to gather information for a news story or opinion piece:

Interviews: Talking with people who know something about the story you are reporting.

Observation: Watching and listening where news is taking place.

Documents: Reading stories, reports, public records and other printed material.
The people or documents you use when reporting a story are called your "sources." In your story, you always tell your readers what sources you've used. So you must remember to get the exact spelling of all your sources' names. You want everything in your story to be accurate, including the names of the sources you quote.
Often, a person's name is not enough information to identify them in a news story. Lots of people have the same name, after all. So you will also want to write down your sources' ages, their hometowns, their jobs and any other information about them that is relevant to the story.
Whenever you are interviewing someone, observing something happening or reading about something, you will want to write down the answers to the "Five Ws" about that source:

Who are they?

What were they doing?

Where were they doing it?

When they do it?

Why did they do it?
Many good reporters got their start by keeping a diary. Buy a notebook, and start jotting down anything interesting you hear, see or read each day. You might be surprised to discover how many good stories you encounter each week!

Writing

Here are the keys to writing good journalism:

Get the facts. All the facts you can.

Tell your readers where you got every bit of information you put in your story.

Be honest about what you do not know.

Don't try to write fancy. Keep it clear.
Start your story with the most important thing that happened in your story. This is called your "lead." It should summarize the whole story in one sentence.
From there, add details that explain or illustrate what's going on. You might need to start with some background or to "set the scene" with details of your observation. Again, write the story like you were telling it to a friend. Start with what's most important, then add background or details as needed.
When you write journalism, your paragraphs will be shorter than you are used to in classroom writing. Each time you introduce a new source, you will start a new paragraph. Each time you bring up a new point, you will start a new paragraph. Again, be sure that you tell the source for each bit of information you add to the story.