THE BRIDGE

Assuming you have written the lead for a story, what

do you do next? In some stories, you will find the transition from the lead to the body of the story is a bit

awkward. To smooth this transition, you use a writing device known as a bridge.

A bridge is a connecting sentence or paragraph between the lead and the body of the story. Although it is not always required, it can serve several useful purposes. For instance, in the bridge, you can place facts that are too detailed for the lead and too important to be placed lower in the story. Note the following example:

Novelty Lead: For sale: One guided missile destroyer.

Bridge: The Navy is thinking about inserting this advertisement in the nation's newspapers. The guided missile destroyer USS Benjamin Stoddert, which is no longer fit for active service, will be scrapped next month.

Note that the writer used a freak lead to introduce his story. The entire lead consists of only six words, and the effect is good. The lead obviously would not be as effective if all the facts were presented in the first paragraph.

Abridge also can bring the reader up to date on past and present events related to the story by the use of tie-backs and tie-ins.

Tie-Back

A tie-back is a newswriting device that allows you to refresh the reader's memory about past events related to the story being written. It frequently is used in follow-up stories (see Chapter 5). Consider the example that follows:

Lead: The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Northwind, with the help of U.S. icebreakers Glacier, Staten Island and the Canadian icebreaker MacDonald is free from the arctic ice

pack that threatened to maroon it until next summer.

Bridge (used as a tie-back): Northwind was making the trip back from an attempt to resupply the research station ice-island T-3 when it began experiencing difficulties in the polar ice. The ice was so severe the ship lost a blade on its starboard propeller and cracked its hull.

Body: The relief ships punched their way through. . . .

Tie-In

A tie-in is similar to a tie-back, except it provides information concerning other events that are currently taking place and that supplement the story being written. While the tie-back deals with the past, the tie-in deals with present events. Consider the following example:

Lead: Navy doctors are

investigating an outbreak of 17 cases of scarlet fever aboard the destroyer USS Balast, a Norfolk-based ship operating in the Mediterranean.

Bridge (used as a tie-in): Meanwhile, measures are being taken to prevent further outbreaks of the disease on other Navy ships. Navy personnel have been warned to report to shipboard sick bays immediately if they find themselves suffering from fever, sore throat or rashes on the neck and upper chest.

Body: The first case of scarlet fever was reported aboard the Balast April 27, about three weeks after the ship left Norfolk. Doctors said . . .

The tie-in can explain or elaborate on one or more of the summary facts, usually why or how. In writing a summary lead, you may find that it becomes long and unwieldy if you try to include a detailed explanation of why and how. But if the explanation is important enough, instead of withholding it until the body of the story, present it in the bridge as in the example that follows:

Summary Lead: The Navy will begin replacing its time-tested manila

lines July 1 with a synthetic product of modern progress - nylon rope.

Bridge (explaining "why"): After months of study and experimentation, the Ships Systems Command has found that nylon rope is superior to manila line in strength, durability and elasticity.

If you have to include the information from these two sentences in your lead, it would become unnecessarily long and cumbersome. By explaining the why in the bridge, you present the information more clearly and make the story more readable. It can provide continuity and a smooth transition from the lead to the body of the story by bringing in one or more secondary, but significant, facts. Note the following example:

Lead: From now on, all of the accounting for the Navy's vast network of ship's stores will go untouched by human hands.

Bridge: CompuNav, an electronic data processing system, will do the job and do it cheaper too.

Body: The CompuNav file computer was unveiled today. . . .

The bridge in this story is strictly a transitional device that helps close the gap between the lead and the body of the story. Reread these sentences again. Note how awkward the story would be if the bridge were omitted.