There are various types of ledes (which is what we call the start of a news story).
The most basic type of lede is called the summary lede. It's a lede that answers at least one or two of the most important questions among the five W's and one H of journalism (who, what, when, where, why and how). Such ledes get straight to the main point of the story. These are the easiest ledes to write, and a default you can always rely upon with any type of story. And this will be the kind of lede I want us to concentrate on as we start this semester.
In deciding what to put in your lede, you need to ask yourself several questions, including:
What is the most important information?
What's the story's central point?
What was said or done about this topic?
What happened, or what action was taken?
What are the most recent developments?
How did things conclude?
Where are things now?
Which facts are most likely to affect or interest readers?
Which facts are most unusual?
What are the facts that a reader absolutely needs to know about this story, if they read just the lede and nothing else?
The structure of a lede should be a single sentence, if possible. So you really do have to drill down to just the essential part of the story in your lede. You can't overload it.
There are several points to consider in writing effective ledes, the first of which is: be concise. Make it easy for the public to read and understand. Avoid being wordy, repetitious, and choppy. Eliminate or delay the use of unnecessary or less necessary background information until later paragraphs.
(The proper length of a lede widely varies between news organization and even between different stories. For the purposes of this class, a lede should be no more than 32 words. That means before writing, you need to make decisions on what information is most important for the lede, and leave out other info until later in the story.)
Be specific. Use interesting details. Offer details that allow readers to visualize events. Avoid cliches.
Use strong, active verbs in the ways we discussed earlier.
Emphasize the magnitude of the story, e.g., note the number of people affected or possibly affected by something (e.g., More than 300 students were hospitalized this week after drinking rotten beer, police said), or the dollar cost or percentage increase or decrease of something (e.g., Tuition will increase 1,000 percent for incoming freshman this fall at Michigan State University), or note any telling statistical measures of what happened (e.g., inches of snowfall in a blizzard, how many feet high was a tsunami wave, the number of cars involved in an accident, ect.).
Stress the unusual, such as deviations from the norm (e.g., A 2-year-old boy who can't yet speak piloted the space shuttle during its launch into space today).
Localize and update. Emphasize your community's role in happenings, whether regional or global (e.g., An MSU student was among three people who stole a hippo from Potter Park Zoo this morning). Emphasize the latest happening or development in a story (e.g., Five more students appeared in court today for their roles in last week's Cedar Fest riot).
Strive for simplicity. Don't overload a lede with too much info. Again,let's keep it to 32 words or less.
Begin with the news, when possible. What I mean is, try to avoid beginning a lede with attribution (the source of information). For example, it's better to lede with, The dog died, police said as opposed to, Police said the dog died, so we can put what happened (the dog died) ahead of who said it (police). The news most often is what happened, not necessarily who said it. But if the source is big enough, then that rule is relaxed (The president said he would okay an invasion of Canada is okay to lede with the source, since the source is making the news by flexing his or her power).
Emphasize the news. Do not necessarily follow chronological order in telling a story. Rarely are the first events in a sequence the most newsworthy. Decide which facts are the most important, interesting, relevant or useful, and write a lede emphasizing those facts, regardless of what occurred first.
(For example, what's most important at a football game; how things started, or how things finished? It's the latter, of course. That's why we lede with who won or lost. Same thing with a city council meeting; the news is what they ended up deciding. That's the material for your lede. Likewise, what's more important: the item the city council first voted on, or the item that most interests or affects residents? It's the latter, so you should lede with the latter.)
Avoid agenda ledes, which are ledes that place too much emphasis on the time and place at which a story occurred. News generally is what happened, why and how moreso than to whom and when.
(For example, in a football story the most important news is who won or lost, and not that a football game was played at a certain time and date. And with a city council story, the most important information is what the council decided, and not that a city council meeting was taking place at a certain time or date.)
Avoid label ledes, which are when you mention a topic but fail to reveal what was said or done. Ledes should report the substance of what happened, and not just the topic. (It's not news that the football team played a game or that the city council had a meeting; it's who won or lost the football game and what the city council ended up deciding to do at the meeting.)
Avoid exaggeration. If a story is weak, it's weak. You're better off doing additional reporting to see if you can find an angle that's more interesting within your topic, than hyping something that just isn't worth the hype.
Avoid misleading readers. Never sensationalize, belittle or mislead. A lede should accurately set the tone for the rest of the story.
Remember your readers. Ledes must be clear, useful, interesting and relevant to be of use to your audience. That's who you're writing to inform. Again, journalism isn't about personal artistic impression; it's about representing the facts in a useful way for your audience to understand.
Rewrite ledes. Writing in and of itself can help focus writing ideas and insights. Don't be afraid to tinker repeatedly with ledes.
(Quite often in my professional career, I would be stuck on writing a lede. What I would often do is start writing the rest of the story, without a lede or with a BS one I knew I'd change. The process of writing the story and laying out facts would often help me crystallize in my mind what the main point of the story was, and once I could articulate a main point, that became my lede.)
Don't be afraid to break some of these rules! Use your imagination. Try to find something different, as long as it is factual and contextually on par with the facts of your story. If it works and best serves the readers in an accurate and contextual way, then it's okay.
The most basic type of lede is called the summary lede. It's a lede that answers at least one or two of the most important questions among the five W's and one H of journalism (who, what, when, where, why and how). Such ledes get straight to the main point of the story. These are the easiest ledes to write, and a default you can always rely upon with any type of story. And this will be the kind of lede I want us to concentrate on as we start this semester.
In deciding what to put in your lede, you need to ask yourself several questions, including:
What is the most important information?
What's the story's central point?
What was said or done about this topic?
What happened, or what action was taken?
What are the most recent developments?
How did things conclude?
Where are things now?
Which facts are most likely to affect or interest readers?
Which facts are most unusual?
What are the facts that a reader absolutely needs to know about this story, if they read just the lede and nothing else?
The structure of a lede should be a single sentence, if possible. So you really do have to drill down to just the essential part of the story in your lede. You can't overload it.
There are several points to consider in writing effective ledes, the first of which is: be concise. Make it easy for the public to read and understand. Avoid being wordy, repetitious, and choppy. Eliminate or delay the use of unnecessary or less necessary background information until later paragraphs.
(The proper length of a lede widely varies between news organization and even between different stories. For the purposes of this class, a lede should be no more than 32 words. That means before writing, you need to make decisions on what information is most important for the lede, and leave out other info until later in the story.)
Be specific. Use interesting details. Offer details that allow readers to visualize events. Avoid cliches.
Use strong, active verbs in the ways we discussed earlier.
Emphasize the magnitude of the story, e.g., note the number of people affected or possibly affected by something (e.g., More than 300 students were hospitalized this week after drinking rotten beer, police said), or the dollar cost or percentage increase or decrease of something (e.g., Tuition will increase 1,000 percent for incoming freshman this fall at Michigan State University), or note any telling statistical measures of what happened (e.g., inches of snowfall in a blizzard, how many feet high was a tsunami wave, the number of cars involved in an accident, ect.).
Stress the unusual, such as deviations from the norm (e.g., A 2-year-old boy who can't yet speak piloted the space shuttle during its launch into space today).
Localize and update. Emphasize your community's role in happenings, whether regional or global (e.g., An MSU student was among three people who stole a hippo from Potter Park Zoo this morning). Emphasize the latest happening or development in a story (e.g., Five more students appeared in court today for their roles in last week's Cedar Fest riot).
Strive for simplicity. Don't overload a lede with too much info. Again,let's keep it to 32 words or less.
Begin with the news, when possible. What I mean is, try to avoid beginning a lede with attribution (the source of information). For example, it's better to lede with, The dog died, police said as opposed to, Police said the dog died, so we can put what happened (the dog died) ahead of who said it (police). The news most often is what happened, not necessarily who said it. But if the source is big enough, then that rule is relaxed (The president said he would okay an invasion of Canada is okay to lede with the source, since the source is making the news by flexing his or her power).
Emphasize the news. Do not necessarily follow chronological order in telling a story. Rarely are the first events in a sequence the most newsworthy. Decide which facts are the most important, interesting, relevant or useful, and write a lede emphasizing those facts, regardless of what occurred first.
(For example, what's most important at a football game; how things started, or how things finished? It's the latter, of course. That's why we lede with who won or lost. Same thing with a city council meeting; the news is what they ended up deciding. That's the material for your lede. Likewise, what's more important: the item the city council first voted on, or the item that most interests or affects residents? It's the latter, so you should lede with the latter.)
Avoid agenda ledes, which are ledes that place too much emphasis on the time and place at which a story occurred. News generally is what happened, why and how moreso than to whom and when.
(For example, in a football story the most important news is who won or lost, and not that a football game was played at a certain time and date. And with a city council story, the most important information is what the council decided, and not that a city council meeting was taking place at a certain time or date.)
Avoid label ledes, which are when you mention a topic but fail to reveal what was said or done. Ledes should report the substance of what happened, and not just the topic. (It's not news that the football team played a game or that the city council had a meeting; it's who won or lost the football game and what the city council ended up deciding to do at the meeting.)
Avoid exaggeration. If a story is weak, it's weak. You're better off doing additional reporting to see if you can find an angle that's more interesting within your topic, than hyping something that just isn't worth the hype.
Avoid misleading readers. Never sensationalize, belittle or mislead. A lede should accurately set the tone for the rest of the story.
Remember your readers. Ledes must be clear, useful, interesting and relevant to be of use to your audience. That's who you're writing to inform. Again, journalism isn't about personal artistic impression; it's about representing the facts in a useful way for your audience to understand.
Rewrite ledes. Writing in and of itself can help focus writing ideas and insights. Don't be afraid to tinker repeatedly with ledes.
(Quite often in my professional career, I would be stuck on writing a lede. What I would often do is start writing the rest of the story, without a lede or with a BS one I knew I'd change. The process of writing the story and laying out facts would often help me crystallize in my mind what the main point of the story was, and once I could articulate a main point, that became my lede.)
Don't be afraid to break some of these rules! Use your imagination. Try to find something different, as long as it is factual and contextually on par with the facts of your story. If it works and best serves the readers in an accurate and contextual way, then it's okay.
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