Length

Figure 2-6.—Sample summary leads featuring the most important elements. The lead is the first and most important paragraph of any news story. It attracts the reader and-states the important facts first. A key fundamental fact taught in classrooms the first time newswriting is mentioned, and repeated at the college level, is that in writing a lead for a straight news story, the writer must answer six basic questions about the event. Known as the five Ws and H questions, they are as follows: who, what, where, when, why and how. It is not necessary that a writer answer all of these questions in the lead sentence. The summary lead does, however, attempt to answer several of the more important ones. To insist upon answering the five Ws and H questions as a rigid format will lead to lengthy, cumbersome leads that may be misleading or hard to read. The lead contains the news peg and is the most important part of the story. It can either make or break any news story. Length Try not to use more than 30 words in the lead, but do not make this an inviolable rule. Some leads, even when well written, may require 35 or even 40 words. On the other hand, many — or perhaps most — require fewer than 30 words to accomplish their objective. A good lead maybe a single word, a single sentence, two sentences, a paragraph or even two paragraphs. Whatever form it takes, it must answer the questions a reader would normally ask such as the following: “What has happened or is about to happen?” “Who is involved?” “When and where did it happen?” And, sometimes, “how and why did it happen?” An effective lead directs the reader’s interest into the body of the story. The summary news lead is the one most often used at the beginning of a straight news story. The most direct approach (and best method for an inexperienced writer to use in constructing a summary lead) is known simply as featuring the most important element. Featuring the most important element means exactly what it says. The writer determines which of the five Ws and H is most important to the story and places it at the outset of the lead. Each of the example leads in figure 2-4 features a different W or H as the most important element. The leads in the figure are given to show how any element may be featured. The “why” element (to prevent a forest fire in this case) is clearly understood and can be dropped out of most leads to avoid redundancy and extra wording. Other summary lead examples are presented in figure 2-5 that answers all or most of the necessary five Ws or H. Those omitted are either implied or unnecessary. The five summary lead examples in figure 2-5 are all “who” leads. In each example, who is featured at the beginning of the lead, thus giving it more prominence than the other Ws or H. More examples of summary leads are illustrated in figure 2-6, with a different W, or H, featured at the beginning of each. 2-13