Leads (Part 2)

Dona Nichols

Multi-element leads

• In some cases, using one theme or focus for the lead is too restricted.

• Multi-element leads focus on a series of news element.

Multi-element leads

• Example: The Portland City Council Tuesday ordered three department heads fired, established an administrative review board and said it would begin to moniter the work habits of administrators.

• Use multi-element leads sparingly.• Simpler leads are preffered.

Quote Lead

• Starts off with an immediately interesting quote as the first paragraph.

• Use VERY SPARINGLY• Often they don’t work please you have to explain the quote.

Question Lead

• First paragraph is a question.• Next paragraph usually answers it.

• USE SPARINGLY• If the reader is not interested in the question, you may lose the reader.

Anecdotal Lead

• Story telling lead or descriptive lead.• Very good way to start a story• Attracts reader and draws the reader into the story.

• Anecdote sets a scene.• Caution: Don’t take too long to get into the story.

• With a thorough interview, you can obtain information for an anecdotal lead.

Other types of leads

• Punch• Background• Descriptive• Contrast• Allusion• Parody• Suspended Interest• Direct address

Punch

• CAPSULE OR PUNCH LEAD: Uses a blunt, explosive statement to summarize the most newsworthy feature.

• The dream is over.The Beatles are back!

Pun

• A novelty that uses a pun to quirk the reader's attention.

• Western High's trash collectors have been down in the dumps lately.

Descriptive

• (Person)

• Diana Ross is wearing no lipstick. She is lounging around on a hot and muggy late afternoon. The windows are raised high throughout her Fifth Avenue apartment. She is dressed in black short shorts and a matching sleeveless blouse that plunges low in the front.

• She is also wearing fishnet stockings and burgundy suede boots. Three or four bracelets jangle on her left wrist.

• Her long nails are the color of pearl, nearly iridescent. She curls up in a corner of the sofa and sips orange juice through her unpainted lips.

Descriptive - event

• The air inside the darkened gymnasium is heavy with the heat of an uncommonly prolonged North Carolina summer. Smoke from some tin containers placed around the basketball court lends a touch of mystery to the scene.

• The thick smoke rolls into the intense light of floor-level arc lamps, then up against a raft of lights hovering like a Steven Spielberg spaceship.

• Out of the dark, a white-clad figure appears, bounding a basketball. Michael Jordan drives for the basket in one of his many crowd-pleasing moves, ball tucked under his arm, then scooped up and over into the hoop.

• All of the way to the basket, Jordan's tongue sticks out, curled up in an expression of pure joy at his defiance not only of imaginary defenders but of gravity itself.

Contrast• Compares extremes - the big with the little, the comedy with the tragedy, age with youth, rich and poor - if such comparison is applicable to the news event.

• His wealth is estimated at $600 million. He controls a handful of corporations, operating in more than 20 nations. Yet he carries his lunch to work in a brown paper bag and wears the latest fashions from Sears and Roebuck's bargain basement.

Allusion• HISTORICAL ALLUSION: Relates a person or event to some character or event in history.

• Napoleon had his Waterloo. George Custer had his Little Big Horn. Fortunately, Napoleon and Custer faced defeat only once. For Bjorn Borg, the finals of the U.S. Tennis Open have become a stumbling block of titanic proportions.

Parody

• Mimics a well-known proverb, quotation or phrase.

• Whisky, whisky everywhere, but 'nary a drop to drink.Such was the case at the City Police Station yesterday when officers poured 100 gallons of bootleg moonshine into the sewer.

Exercise 2-6

• The states Human Resources Commission has awarded a $45,000 youth employment grant to Carolton on Wednesday. Money will go toward providing part-time employment to 60-70 low income students’ ages 16 to 21.

Exercise 2-6

• A $45,000 youth employment grant was awarded to Carolton public schools by the state Human Resources Commission to provide part-time summer jobs for low-income students age 16 to 21. ﾊ The ten-week program will allow students to work 25 hours a week performing general cleanup and maintenance around city hall and other public buildings. ﾊStudents may apply for one of the 60 to 70 minimum-wage positions through a Carolton public school office.

Exercise 2-6

• Finally Carolton has ben awarded a state youth employment grant will be a $45,000 grant which will allow between 60-70 students to be hired and work 25 hours a week. Purpose of this grant is to provide summer jobs for low income students ages 16-21.

Exercise 2-6 - Textbook

• Carlton has been awarded a $45,000 youth employment grant to provide part-time summer jobs for low-income students.

• The State Human Resources grant will provide jobs for 50 to 70 young peoople between the ages of 16 and 21.

• The students will be paid the minimum wage for maintenance for maintenance and general cleanup around the Municipal Building and other city properties.

• They will work 25 hours a week for 10 weeks.