JR102 Lecture 2: Writing Leads
28 Jun 2018
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Writing Leads
●Be specific rather than vague and abstract.
●Avoid stating the obvious or the negative.
●Emphasize the story’s most interesting and important developments.
●Emphasize the story’s magnitude and its impact on the participants and readers.
●Use complete sentences, the proper tense and all the necessary articles-”a, an,
and the”.
●Be concise. IF a lead exceeds three typed lines, examine it for wordiness,
repetition or unnecessary details and rewrite it to eliminate the problems.
●Avoid writing a label lead that report the story’s topic but not what was said or
done about it.
●Begin leads with the news-the main points of the story-not the attribution of the
time and place the events occurred.
●Use relatively simple sentences and avoid beginning leads with a long phrase or
clause.
●Use strong, active and descriptive verbs rather than passive ones.
●Avoid using unfamiliar names. Any names that require lengthy identification
should be reported in a later paragraph.
●Attribute any question or statement of opinion appearing in the lead.
●Localize the lead, and emphasize the latest developments, preferably what
happened today or yesterday.
●Eliminate statements of opinion, including one word labels such as “interesting”
and “alert”
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Be specific rather than vague and abstract. Avoid stating the obvious or the negative. Emphasize the story"s most interesting and important developments. Emphasize the story"s magnitude and its impact on the participants and readers. Use complete sentences, the proper tense and all the necessary articles- a, an, and the . If a lead exceeds three typed lines, examine it for wordiness, repetition or unnecessary details and rewrite it to eliminate the problems. Avoid writing a label lead that report the story"s topic but not what was said or done about it. Begin leads with the news-the main points of the story-not the attribution of the time and place the events occurred. Use relatively simple sentences and avoid beginning leads with a long phrase or clause. Use strong, active and descriptive verbs rather than passive ones. Any names that require lengthy identification should be reported in a later paragraph. Attribute any question or statement of opinion appearing in the lead.
