Leads by example

I hope you enjoyed our last session's lead-writing exercises.

It might seem like a lot of effort to put into one topic area, but it mirrors the emphasis that professional journalists (and more importantly, their editors) place on writing a good lead. As we discussed last week, the lead is arguably the single most crucial aspect of a news story. It's common for reporters to spend 20 minutes or more just staring into space trying to find the right beginning for their stories. The lead sets the tone and rhythm for the rest of the story, and perfection of the skill should be one of your priorities.

Let's try a more interactive, long-term lead exercise. Many of us read newspapers and magazines both online and off, and we've all encountered examples of the main types of leads as identified by the Sue Barr handout.

Let's find other examples of those types of leads in our local and regional publications, and compile a list of them in a future post on this blog. Identifying leads, evaluating them and improving them should be a priority for you as a student of this course.


In the mean time, read some of these articles for great advice and insight into the lead-writing process.

Chip Scanlan at The Poynter Institute asks several industry heads to opine on the The Power of Leads.

Frank Soloman at BNet provides Ten Commandments for Writing Good Leads.

I know some of you are in marketing & communications, so here's an interesting guide to writing the lead paragraphs of press releases.

Finally (for now), here's a good companion piece to the Barr handout. It identifies different leads and provides some tips on writing them as well. It's available as a downloadable and printable PDF.



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One other minor point: Keep bringing your newspapers and clippings in the future.