WRITING EFFECTIVE LEADS
Information from
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/05/
and
http://cubreporters.org/leads.html
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The lead, or opening paragraph, is the most
important part of a news story. It…
 grabs
interest
 gives readers the most important information
 is clear, concise and interesting
 establishes the voice and direction of an article
Tips for Writing a Lead
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The Five W’s and H: Before writing a lead, decide which aspect of the story
– who, what, when, where, why, how – is most important. You should
emphasize those aspects in your lead. Wait to explain less important aspects
until the second or third sentence.
Conflict: Good stories have conflict. So do many good leads.
Specificity: Though you are essentially summarizing information in most leads,
try to be specific as possible. If your lead is too broad, it won’t be
informative or interesting.
Brevity: Readers want to know why the story matters to them and they won’t
wait long for the answer. Leads are often one sentence, sometimes two.
Generally, they are 25 to 30 words and should rarely be more than 40.
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Active sentences: Strong verbs will make your lead lively and interesting.
Passive constructions, on the other hand, can sound dull and leave out
important information, such as the person or thing that caused the action.
Incomplete reporting is often a source of passive leads.
Audience and context: Take into account what your reader already knows.
Remember that in today’s media culture, most readers become aware of
breaking news as it happens. If you’re writing for a print publication the
next day, your lead should do more than merely regurgitate yesterday’s
news.
Honesty: A lead is an implicit promise to your readers. You must be able to
deliver what you promise in your lead.
What to Avoid
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Flowery language: Many beginning writers make the mistake of overusing adverbs
and adjectives in their leads. Concentrate instead on using strong verbs and nouns.
Unnecessary words or phrases: Watch out for unintentional redundancy. For
example, 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, or very unique. You can’t afford to waste
space in a news story, especially in the lead. Avoid clutter and cut right to the heart
of the story.
Formulaic leads: Because a lot of news writing is done on deadline, the temptation
to write tired leads is strong. Resist it. Readers want information, but they also want
to be entertained. Your lead must sound genuine, not merely mechanical.
It: Most editors frown on leads that begin with the word it because it is not precise
and disorients the reader.
Types of Leads
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Summary
Anecdotal
Question
Quotation
Single-Item
Delayed Identification
Creative
Fragment (Single
Sentence)
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Analogy
Wordplay
Scenic
Storytelling
Amazing Fact/Startling
Statement
Opposite
List
Summary Lead
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This is perhaps the most traditional lead in news writing. It is often used for breaking news. A story about a
city council vote might use this “just the facts” approach. Straight news leads tend to provide answers to the
most important three or four of the Five W’s and H. Historically this type of lead has been used to convey
who, what, when and where. But in today’s fast-paced media atmosphere, a straightforward recitation of
who, what, when and where can sound stale by the time a newspaper hits the stands. Some newspapers are
adjusting to this reality by posting breaking news online as it happens and filling the print edition with more
evaluative and analytical stories focused on why and how. Leads should reflect this.
EXAMPLES:
County administrator faces ouster
By Tony Cook for The Cincinnati Post, Jan. 14, 2005
Two Hamilton County Commissioners plan to force the county’s top administrator out of office today.
Commentary: This lead addresses the traditional who, what and when. If this information had been reported on
TV or radio the day before, this lead might not be a good one for the print edition of the newspaper;
however, if the reporter had an exclusive or posted this information online as soon as it became available,
then this lead would make sense. Note that it is brief (15 words) and uses an active sentence construction.
Anecdotal Lead
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Sometimes, beginning a story with a quick anecdote can draw in readers.
The anecdote must be interesting and must closely illustrate the article’s
broader point. If you use this approach, specificity and concrete detail are
essential and the broader significance of the anecdote should be explained
within the first few sentences following the lead.
EXAMPLE:
Tri-staters tell stories of the devastating tsunami
By Tony Cook for The Cincinnati Post, Jan. 8, 2005
From Dan Ralescu’s sun-warmed beach chair in Thailand, the Indian Ocean
began to look, oddly, not so much like waves but bread dough.
Commentary: This article is a local angle on the devastating tsunami that struck
Southeast Asia in 2005. As a result of the massive death toll and worldwide
impact, most readers would have been inundated with basic information
about the tsunami. Given that context, this lead uses an unexpected image to
capture the reader’s attention and prepare them for a new take on the
tsunami. Again, it is brief (23 words).
Question/Quotation Lead
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Other types of leads: A large number of other approaches exist, and writers should
not feel boxed in by formulas. That said, beginning writers can abuse certain kinds
of leads. These include leads that begin with a question or direct quotation and
those that make a direct appeal using the word you. While such leads might be
appropriate in some circumstances, use them sparsely and cautiously.
EXAMPLE:
Same lobbyist for courts, shorter term, more money
By Tony Cook for the Las Vegas Sun, June 29, 2008
What’s increasing faster than the price of gasoline? Apparently, the cost of court
lobbyists. District and Justice Court Judges want to hire lobbyist Rick Loop for
$150,000 to represent the court system in Carson City through the 2009 legislative
session. During the past session, Loop’s price tag was $80,000.
Commentary: Question leads can be useful in grabbing attention, but they are rarely as
effective as other types of leads in terms of clearly and concisely providing the main
point of a story. In this case, the second paragraph must carry a lot of the weight
that would normally be handled in the lead.
More Examples
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Summary Lead
___The summary lead is the most traditional lead in a journalism
article. It is to the point and factual. It's meant to give a reader a
quick summary of the story in as few words as possible (should be
30 words or less), usually in one sentence. It contains the essence of
the story (i.e. the most important, but not necessarily all, of the 5 Ws
and H -- who, what, when, where, why and how). It cites the source
of any opinions.
___For example, I frequently used this approach when I covered
breaking news for a wire service:
__WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told
Congress yesterday that U.S. economic growth appeared to be
slowing, heading off for the moment any need to raise interest rates.
Wall Street responded with a cheer, sending stocks and bonds soaring.
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Single-Item Lead
___This lead focuses on just one or two elements of a
summary lead for a bigger punch. For instance, when the
Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series, their first
championship since 1980, a story posted online by the
Associated Press began with this single-item lead:
__The Philadelphia Phillies are World Champions again.
___As opposed to this typical summary lead, which Reuters
used:
__The Philadelphia Phillies ended their long wait for a World
Series title with a short burst of baseball last night as they
clinched the crown by completing a rain-suspended 4-3 win
over the Tampa Bay Rays.
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Delayed Identification Lead
___Sometimes with summary leads, you don't always want to clearly identify the
subject (or the who) right away. In the above examples, the who -- Alan Greenspan
and the Phillies -- were identified because they were really essential elements of
the story. People don't just want to hear that a baseball team won a championship - they want to know which team. Similarly, when the Federal Reserve chairman
speaks, people listen.
___Often, however, the subject doesn't have much name recognition, nor do readers
care all that much about the subject's name. So, use a descriptive pronoun to
identify the person in the lead. Provide his specific name and title in a later
paragraph.
__LINCOLN, R.I. -- A School Committee member has filed an assault complaint
against a fellow member, accusing her of grabbing her nose and twisting it following
an executive session Thursday night.
__Patricia A. Iannelli yesterday alleged in an interview that fellow committee member
Lucille J. Mandeville "grabbed my nose and proceeded to twist my nose" following a
rancorous discussion during a closed-door School Committee meeting.
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Creative Lead
___Unless you're writing hard news for a daily
newspaper or regularly-updated website, the
summary lead just doesn't reel in readers. You need
to take a more creative approach. Consider this
summary lead:
__A late spring snowstorm surprised forecasters and
drivers Tuesday afternoon, triggering more than 30
accidents, Cleveland police officials said.
A more creative idea might be…
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Short Sentence/Fragment Lead
___This lead uses one word or a short phrase as a
teaser for the rest of the lead. Readers may find
this gimmicky, so use this approach sparingly. Here's
an example:
__One-fifth of an inch.
__That's all the snow it took to trigger more than 30
accidents on local roads yesterday as a late spring
storm snuck up on Cleveland motorists.
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Analogy Lead
___This lead makes a comparison between an issue or
event you're writing about and something more familiar
to the average reader. This approach can work well
when you have a complex or foreign matter you want
to explain in laymen's terms. Consider:
__AMSTERDAM -- The Netherlands is considering antiterrorism laws that make the United States' Patriot Act
look like a civil libertarian's dream come true.
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Wordplay Lead
___This lead involves a clever turn of phrase, name or word. Be
careful using this lead because it can mislead the reader. The reader
may think your story is about one thing and then discover it's about
something else and get annoyed.
___ But I think a wordplay lead approach works for this next
example, excerpted from a story I wrote about a fire at a costume
store. Because the fire happened late at night, it didn't get
newspaper coverage until two days later, at which point it wasn't
breaking news and a summary lead wouldn't have worked well.
__PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Bill Clinton will finally get taken to the cleaners.
__So will Dracula and a Playboy bunny.
__The three are among some 6,000 smoke-damaged costumes that
will visit dry cleaners in the next few days, because of a fire that broke
out Wednesday night at Morris Novelty, a popular costume and
novelty store.
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Scenic Lead
___This lead begins with a description of the scene surrounding an event. It
is typically used for stories in which the setting is prominent, such as stories
about festive events, performances and sports. It can also be used to strike
a mood appropriate for the story.
___One of my students used such an approach for her profile story, which
was published in the Asbury Park Press -- and it worked well. As the
youngest member of a prestigious ballet group, her subject's typical work
day is atypical for an 18-year-old. So, she began her story by describing a
scene from the teenage ballerina's work day.
__The lights shine down and the music surrounds her as she spins across the
stage into the arms of her partner. The audience roars its approval as the
music slows and the curtains begin to close.
__It's the end of just another workday for teenager Chelsea Rittenhouse.
__At 18, the Howell resident is the youngest member of the New York Theater
Ballet, which describes itself as the most widely seen chamber ballet company
in the United States. The professional group also tours abroad.
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Storytelling Lead
___Using a narrative style, begin by introducing the main characters, the
conflict, and perhaps the setting of the story. Make readers feel the drama
and want to know what's going to happen next. Wall Street Journal
reporter Angelo Henderson used this approach to begin his Pulitzer Prizewinning article about a pharmacist who is driven to violence by his
encounters with armed robbery:
__DETROIT -- "Get on the ground," a man holding a gun screamed. "I'll blow
your heads off if you move."
__Dennis Grehl and a co-worker complied. Dreamlike, he found himself lying
face down on a cold, gritty black-tile floor, a pistol against the back of his
head.
__"Please, mister, don't make me shoot you," a second gunman threatened.
__A crazy memory: tiny specks of light floating in the tile; that, and the
paralyzing weight of helplessness.
__Mr. Grehl is a pharmacist, unassuming, mild mannered. A family man with a
wife and a daughter.
__He was being robbed.
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Amazing Fact Lead
___Open with an amazing fact that arouses
readers interest, such as:
__WASHINGTON -- Sixty percent of Americans
oppose the U.S. war in Iraq, the highest number since
polling on the subject began with the commencement
of the war in March 2003, according to poll results
and trends released Wednesday. (CNN)
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Startling Statement Lead
___Open with a startling statement that arouses reader interest. When I was
assigned to write an anniversary story about a widely-publicized murder, I knew I'd
need a unique angle if I was going to get people to read about someone whom
they'd already heard a lot about. So, I began my story with a startling statement:
__LINCOLN, R.I. -- The first thing Elizabeth Moon sees in the morning is the room
where her father was beaten to death.
__It was one year ago yesterday that she and this bucolic town were stunned by the
brutal and still unsolved murder of Dr. Alfred C. Moon. The radiologist's naked body
was found in his bed, bludgeoned with a lamp.
__According to an autopsy report, the medical pioneer who brought the CAT scan to
Rhode Island died from "blunt force deforming-type trauma" so severe that he had to
be identified by dental records.
__Elizabeth Moon acknowledges that many people think it's "creepy" that her family
lives in the house where it happened. To her, the light gray house with aqua shutters on
Briarwood Road is not where her father died, but the place where he lived.
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Opposite Lead
___Cite first one point of view or observation and
then follow with the opposite view, like this:
__Facebook rots the brain, according to a report by
a Stansbury University psychology professor. Jim
Wallace, honors student and an avid user of the
popular website, says that just isn't true.
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List Lead
___Sometimes instead of focusing on just one person, place or thing, you
want to impress the reader with a longer list. Consider this next example,
which comes from a story I wrote for the Arizona Republic about the
growing popularity of general aviation in Phoenix. Because of the diversity
of examples, many readers probably can identify with at least one of the
pilots:
__Whenever sixth-grader Vasil Evanoff has a day off from school, he hops
into a Cessna 152 and takes to the skies.
__On weekends, Sue Sumner likes to fly her grandson around the Valley, just
to see the sights.
__There's a special restaurant that funeral director Lincoln Ragsdale Jr. likes to
visit for breakfast, but it's 115 miles away from home. He climbs in his Beech
Bonanza A-36, and an hour later, he's eating pancakes in Sedona.
__Evanoff, Sumner and Ragsdale are among the growing numbers of
Arizonans piloting small airplanes.