Lesson 2.3 Midterm Comm 14

1 Communication 14: Publication and Editing LESSON 2: MID TERM Part II. Inside the Publication THE LEAD
What is a Lead?
Writing Effective Leads
Types of Lead

LEAD



First paragraph of a news story. Function: summarize the story by getting the main idea arouse the reader’s interest and lure them into the story

EXAMPLES: One Initial: A Harvard sociologist studying teenage pregnancy gave a speech last night to more than 200 hundred students and faculty members in Hall Auditorium. Better: A Harvard sociologist said last night that teenage pregnancy is costing the country billions of dollars a year. Gerald Cantor told 200 students and faculty members in Hall Auditorium that the costs associated with the pregnancies of 500,000 young women under the age of 20 “are vastly greater than we had thought.” He attributed the costs to social services . . . . 1. What: the high cost. 2. Who: Harvard sociologist. 3. Direct or delayed: Direct.

Two Initial:

2 Replies of Rep. Ronald A. Sarasin and William R. Ratchford, candidates in the Fifth Congressional race, to a Connecticut League of Women Voters questionnaire were released today. Better: Ronald A. Sarasin and William R. Ratchford, candidates for Congress in the Fifth District, agree that the deficit is the major domestic issue facing the nation. Their positions on the budget and on other issues were released today by the Connecticut League of Women Voters. The League had sent its questionnaires to all major candidates for office.

KICKERS




Lead-type endings Series of events Modern morality tale with a climax

Example: Bad things happen to the husbands of the Widow Elkin. Someone murdered husband No. 4, Cecil Elkin, apparently smashing his head with a frying pan as he watched “Family Feud” on TV. Husband No. 3, Samuel Smilich, drowned in a weedy South Dade canal. Husband No. 2, Lawrence Myers, cannot be found . . . . Very detailed In the murder of her fourth husband that got Margaret Elkin in trouble. She is accused of trying to hire a beekeeper to kill him. The trial is set for September 9.

FOLOS





Local stories Can run alongside the major story, or it can be published a day or so after the major piece has run. Includes some information from the major piece Updated and freshened stories.

Example:

3

Local highschool principals say they will continue to allow student journalists a free hand, despite a Supreme Court decision that gives them the power to censor school publications.

THE FIVE LEAD QUESTIONS 1. What was unique or the most important or unusual thing that happened? 2. Who was involved – who did it or who said it? 3. Is a direct or a delayed lead best? (Does the theme of the story go into the first sentence or somewhere within the first six paragraphs?) 4. Is there a colorful word or dramatic phrase I can work into the lead? 5. What is the subject and what verb will best move the reader into the story?

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN WRITING LEADS: 1. Find the essential elements of the story. (news worthiness) 2. Decide whether a direct or delayed lead better suits the event. 3. If one element is outstanding, use a single-element lead. If more than one, use a multipleelement lead. (important element, significant) 4. Use the S-V-O construction. 5. Variety is possible (diversity in the beginnings) Examples of variety: By his long and wide-ranging career, which took him from the Deep South half a century ago as a civil rights attorney to the US Supreme Court in 1967 as the first black justice, Thurgood Marshall became a doubly powerful symbol both for black achievement and as a protector of individual rights, many of his clerks said yesterday upon learning of his death.

WASHINGTON – Thurgood Marshall’s greatest contributions to the Supreme Court and American justice were not the scores of majority opinions he wrote.

6. Use concrete and colorful action verbs. 7. Keep the lead short, under 30-35 words. Exception to the rule: NEW YORK (AP) – The stock market plunged out of control Monday in a selling panic that rivaled the Great Crash of 1929, pushing the Dow Jones average down more than 500 points, draining more than $500 billion from the value of stocks and sending shock waves around the world. (46 words)

4 8. Make the lead readable, but do not sacrifice truthful and accurate reporting for readability. Use of Jargons: The city planning office today recommended that property zoned for two-acre, onefamily dwellings be rezoned to allow the construction of the cooperative apartment houses for middle-and-low income families.

Low-and middle-income families may be able to buy apartments in suburban areas north of the city. This is the intention of a proposal made today by the city planning office. The recommendation to the city council would rezone property in the area from the present restrictions that permit only single-family dwellings on two-acre lots. 9. Sentence structure in leads:
If an event occurred in the past, the lead must use the past, not the present tense.
Must be complete sentences and should include all the necessary articles (“a”, “an” and “the”). Example: Man dies on railroad tracks. REVISED: A 19-year old Detroit man was killed early Tuesday when he was hit by a train while lying on some railroad tracks just south of Nova Road. 10. Good reporting equals good lead. HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE LEAD: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Be concise. Be specific. Use strong, active verbs. Emphasize the magnitude of the story.

Example: PENSACOLA (AP) – A National Airlines Boeing 727 carrying 60 people plowed into Pensacola Bay on a landing approach late Monday night, killing at least one. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Stress the unusual. Localize and update your lead. Be objective and attribute opinions. Use questions and quotations judiciously.

AVOID:

5 1. Emphasize what is news worthy. 2. Avoid “label” leads Example: The Department of Health and Human Services issued a report on alcoholism today. REVISED: Alcohol is the major drug problem in the United States, and one out of 10 Americans suffers from alcoholism or a lesser drinking problem, the Department of Health and Human Services reported today. 3. Avoid stating the obvious. 4. Avoid the negative. 5. Avoid misleading readers.

TYPES OF LEADS: 1. Direct lead or the Summary lead Example: 1 – A local couple was awarded $150,000 in damages yesterday in Butte County Court for injuries they suffered in a traffic accident last March. 2 – Two veteran motion picture industry executives were chosen today by the board of Walt Disney Productions to head the troubled company a mouse built. 3- A late-morning fire in the upper floors of an 18-story apartment building in the Lefrak city project in Elmhurst, Queens, killed three people Thursday, the Fire Department said. 4- Strong winds combined lethally with a fire in a Queens high-rise building yesterday, creating a “blowtorch” that roared through an apartment building and into a hallway, killing three people and injuring 22. 2. Delayed lead Example: 1- Jack Loizeaux is a dentist of urban decay, a Mozart of dynamite, a guru of gravity. Like Joshua, he blows and the walls come tumbling down. 2 – The father and his 19-month-old daughter are on the sidewalk at the entrance to the supermarket parking lot. As people drive by, the man pleads with a hand-lettered, cardboard sign: “Need food. Will work. Please help.” The little girl is bundled in a light blue parka and mittens. Bottles of juice and milk are nearby. Her warm breath puffs tiny white clouds into the cold December air . . . . . 3 – They are the misery merchants and they prowl the streets of our city 24 hours a day as profiteers of human suffering . . . . .

6 Sub-types: a. Narrative (Picture/Descriptive/Anecdotal) Lead block – two or more paragraphs building up to a paragraph that tells readers the major point of the story Nut graph – explanatory paragraph Example: 1- The playful shrieks of children drifted through a thick courtroom door Wednesday as their father pleaded no contest to abusing three of his six youngsters. “Hi, daddy. I love you daddy,” they chorused as John L. Salter left the courthouse on his way to jail. 2- Peter Spears swiveled his hips to the tune of “Neutron Dance,” turned his back to the audience and ripped off his jacket, revealing a shirt opened to the waist. Spears strutted to the beat and slowly tossed off his shirt and pants. Still wearing a black bow tie and black bikini swimsuit, he dove into the Patten Gymnasium pool. Spears, a CAS (College of Arts and Science) freshman and Sigma Nu member, won the Mr. Anchor Splash title Sunday in the fourth annual competition sponsored by Delta Gamma sorority. b. Contrast Example: 1- Oklahoma City will never be the same. This is a place after all, where terrorists don’t venture. The heartland, people kept saying. Car bombs don’t kill children here. Wednesday changed everything. c. Staccato Example: 1-Off-white or beige walls. Brown or gray carpet. Beige vinyl kitchen floors. These are the staples of apartment decor. Which is fine if you are into earth tones and neutrals. But what if you have a brighter color scheme in mind and the rules forbid any change? d. Direct-address leads Example: 1- MIAMI – Your corner gas station – and the entire U.S. oil industry – is about to change more dramatically than ever in the 100-year history of the car, experts say. e. Question

7 Example: 1- WASHINGTON (UPI) – Waltzing? It’s in. Bedhopping? Out. Miss Manner etiquette? In. Raunchy locker room talk? Out. Marriage? Non-commitment? It’s sweet history. Seems all that is left to the torrid sexual revolution is the faint smoke of candlelit romance, one on one. Even rocker Linda Ronstadt has turned to vintage torch songs – what’s going on? f. Quote Example: 1- As Yogi Berra would say: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” But yesterday it was over – at least for now. g. Combo / None of the above Example: 1- If money talks, technology roars. Sometimes it even laughs. Speakers at the Technology Alliance luncheon yesterday at the downtown Seattle Westin Hotel showcased the growth of high tech and its impact on the region. The humor was a welcome sideshow. Others:
Punch lead – brief, concise and arresting epigram
Freak lead – unique by using typographical effects to enhance their appeal. (Example: “Wanted: Husbands.”)
Teaser lead – uses well-known phrase, quotation or begins with a verse or jingle or employs literary allusion.
Exclamatory lead or Astonisher lead – exclamatory remark or arouses surprise or astonishment.
Cartridge lead – explosive lead and the shortest way of telling a bit of news. TEST FOR THE LEAD: 1. The lead should be simple, brief, compact, vigorous attractive and should shoot straight as a rifle bullet into the reader’s attention. 2. It should be written in a manner appropriate to the subject matter. 3. It should not carry gratuitous opinion of the writer, unless it is signed. 4. It should fix authority for information lest the reader question the story’s authenticity. 5. It should vary in style. 6. It should avoid beginning with non-essential details. 7. Copy editors should be alert to detect and bring to the fore “buried leads” – important news mistakenly lost in the body of the story.

8 8. Above all, leads should be accurate by all means. EXERCISE #3 Name: ____________________________________________________________________

A. Critically evaluate the following leads. Select the best leads and explain why they are effective. 1. “Faith in a Violent World,” will be the theme for Religious Emphasis Week at the university next week, according to the director of the United Campus Ministry. 2. Next summer, the university will institute a new program designed to recruit and retain academically disadvantaged students. 3. A 7-year-old girl who struck a 6-year-old playmate with a stick, crushing the cartilage in her nose, has been charged with aggravated assault. 4. A 42-year-old man was arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana Monday after his landlady discovered more than 300 plants in a house he rents from her. 5. Students at school in the city can catch a few extra winks beginning next fall, as the school board last night decided to start all their classes a half-hour later.

B. Write a lead for the articles attached.