First Ledes: Word Order

We can use word order to shorten passages. Like this one:

... according to a study done by sociologists at the University of Florida.

Anytime we have heavy use of "to a" and "by" and "at the," we probably have room to get rid of such terms by moving around word order, like I did here: 

... according to a University of Florida sociologists' study.

That turned a 12-word passage into just eight words. Not a ton of words, but critical in making a lede and brief and succinct as possible, while at the same time retaining the exact same meaning as before, with no loss of content.

First Ledes: Don't Forget Your Articles!

I don't mean stories. A mean a grammatical article, like a, an, the.

Like here: 5- and 3-year-old brother and sister die in house fire after playing with matches when smoke detector doesn’t function and babysitter fails to rescue them.

It should be, A 5- and 3-year-old brother and sister die in a house fire after playing with matches when a smoke detector doesn’t function and thebabysitter fails to rescue them.

When it comes to writing for news, what messes us up regarding articles are newspaper headlines, which usually drop articles in favor of brevity. While that is true of headlines, that is not true of the actual stories under the headlines. Articles need articles.

If you're not sure if you have articles, read your story out loud and ask yourself if it sounds like you've formed complete sentences (e.g., do you sound like a robot talking -- must bowl now -- or a human being -- I must bowl now?). If not, it's usually because you're missing an article.

First Ledes: Writing With (AP) Style

In this assignment, I didn't grade you for adherence to AP Style, since we're still in the process of going over it. While soon you will be graded based on AP use, in this one I still cited proper AP Style in your evaluation, so we can start getting used to it.

And some of the rules include:

It's 911 call, not 9-1-1. So says AP Style, under the heading of 911 call.

It's $1.5 million, not 1.5 million dollars. Under dollars: Use figures and the $ sign in all except casual references or amounts without a figure.

When using addresses, there's lotsa little rules to follow. Let's start looking at a few of 'em.

First, is an address 1840 Maldren Ave. or 1840 Maldren Avenue?

From AP Style, under addresses:

Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues.

Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures with two letters for 10th and above: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St. So in this case, it's 1840 Maldren Ave.

And if you referred to the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wayne Boulevard, that would be the correct reference, not just Michigan and Wayne or Michigan Ave. and Wayne Blvd.

Controversial: Fatals

PROBLEM: In one story, we said the parent's last name was Adlent. In fact, her name was Adler. Fact fatals result in an automatic 1.0 grade.

SOLUTION: Before writing, carefully go over the information to make sure you understand all the facts as they are. After writing, double-check against your notes every noun (person, place or thing), identifying labels (like addresses, titles and such), numbers, dates and the entirety of all quotes to make sure what you wrote was what you intended to write.

RFTM Chapter 5: Selecting And Reporting The News

There are several characteristics of news to consider. Those include timeliness; that it is current information, fresh angles and new details. (You can't spell "news" without "new.")

Impact: stories that affect, involve or interest large groups of audience members. (For example, a tuition hike at MSU is a big deal to The State News, because so many of the newspaper's readers are MSU students. A tuition hike at the U. of M. means much less to The State News, because the U. of M. isn't its audience.) Reporters must evaluate the impact and/or importance of news, in deciding what to report and highlight.

Prominence: the happenings of people or institutions of great power, importance or influence. (For example, if I get into a car accident it's not a big deal, since I'm nobody special. If the President gets into a car accident, it's a big deal.)

Proximity: events close to home (a murder in East Lansing is bigger news to The State News than a murder in Detroit, because The State News's primary audience is in and around East Lansing) and even events happening to people or in places similar to those of your audience (for example, a college campus shooting in California WOULD be a bigger deal to The State News, since the news involves the same demographic as its primary audience; that being college students).

Singularity: or deviations from the usual, such as unexpected or unusual events, drama or charge, odd twists in otherwise-mundane stories (for example, a car accident caused by a cat driving a car is much more newsworthy than a typical car accident, because cats usually don't drive cars). Journalists must always be on the lookout for this, if singularity is what makes this story different than others.

Conflict or controversy: between entities or people (e.g., a school planning a tuition hike unpopular with students), or between people and societal issues (e.g., college grads dealing with a lousy job market).

There are also various types of news, including hard news, defined as stories on serious, timely and important topics (e.g., tuition hikes, public safety).

Soft news: features or human-interest stories (summer travel options, a look at the life of an interesting person).

Breaking news: news that's happening at the moment (car crashes, house fires).

Is there such a thing as "good news" and "bad news?" Journalistically, no. This usually refers to a source's view of a story, based on whether he or she received positive or negative attention.

(That has no bearing on the work we do. Our duty is to our audience, regardless of whether it makes a source look good or bad or indifferent and regardless of your opinions or even your audience's opinions. Rely on facts -- and fairness to the facts, and your audience's accurate understanding of the facts -- to guide the tone of your report.)

The importance of accuracy is all-encompassing. Journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. That includes an accuracy in facts. Reporters must understand a topic before writing about it. If reporters don't understand something, how can they explain it to readers? Make sure you do thorough reporting and ask any and all questions -- even so-called "stupid" ones -- so that you get what you're writing about.

Accurate writing requires specifics instead of generalities. Be sure to double-check and even triple-check all information. Ask for spellings (especially of names; the first time you assume someone spells their name as Jill, you'll later learn it was Jyl or something else) and specifics. Most fact errors are caused by carelessness or laziness.

There are many obstacles to accuracy, primarily that speed (in meeting deadlines) and accuracy (in ensuring our work is correct) don't naturally go together. But that's the challenge of journalism; to make those two get along as well as possible.

Also, there's always the risk of misinformation, by a source either providing incorrect information or lying outright. That's why it's important to talk to MULTIPLE sources, and to seek evidence for statements given to you.

(There's an old saying in journalism that, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." What does that mean? That if your mom says she loves you, don't just take her word for it; try to verify it using facts and statements. For example, you can cite historical documents that indicate a fondness for you, like birthday cards from your mom and notes she wrote you saying how much she loves you. You can interview subjects who know your mom, like coworkers who say she always brags about how great you are. You can cite historical events, like that she never missed any of your activities as a kid. Then, you share all that with your audience. THAT'S journalism. Again, it's not about writing; it's about getting it right.)

RFTM Chapter 8: Basic News Ledes

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.

RFTM Chapter 9: Alternative Ledes

What is an alternative lede? It's a lede that is more creative, contextual and usually much more fun to write. It conveys an interesting idea or the essence of a story in a unique way. It requires intelligence, inventiveness and imagination instead of formula writing (although our approaches still require a devotion to the facts, as opposed to our feelings and opinions).

There are various types of alternative ledes, which we will look at with all examples being from stories related to the Cedar Fest riots that occasionally take place in East Lansing. Those types of ledes include:

Buried or delayed ledes. These begin with an interesting example or anecdote that sets a story's theme. Then it's followed by a nut graf, which in the case of alternate ledes summarizes the main point that the anecdote is illustrating, and provides a transition to the body of the story. (Nut grafs are a bit different with summary ledes; we'll get into that a bit later.)

Here's an example of a type of buried or delayed lede, which in this case is called a descriptive lede, which offers descriptive details that paint a picture before gradually moving into the action:

Joe Smith was enjoying a beautiful spring night with 4,000 of his classmates, drinking and partying and having a good ol' time.

The air was warm, the beer was cold, and most people were being cool about it all.Then, some people started go get a bit rowdy. A stop sign was torn from the ground. A pair of couches went up in flames. 

And that's when the tear gas cannisters began to fly.

Nearly 2,000 students were arrested, and another 2,000 hospitalized after the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot that required National Guard intervention before being brought under control.

In this example, the lede actually is an anecdote that extends over the first three paragraphs, or grafs. The fourt graf is the nut graf (which, like with most alternative ledes, sounds very much like a summary lede).

The goal here is to emphasize context and humanize the story, before we get into the nitty-gritty.

Question ledes, appropriate when the question is brief, simple, specific and provocative, such as:

Got tear gas?

Nearly 4,000 MSU students were able to answer "yes" to that question after the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot. leading National Guard troops to fire tear gas cannisters to disperse the crowd.

The first graf is your lede, and the second is your nut graf. This is also an example of a suspenseful lede, where we create suspense or arouse reader curiosity or raise a question in their mind, offering an explanation in the nut graf.

Shockers are ledes with a twist; a startling lede that immediately captures the attention of readers, such as in this alternative lede/nut graf combo:

Drinking is a rite of passage at many colleges. At MSU, that rite comes with tear gas.

For the sixth straight year, the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot, with National Guard troops once again dispersing the crowd with tear gas cannisters.

Ironic ledes are similar to a shocker, but offer an ironic contrast, like in this lede/nut graf combo:

Joe Smith went to Cedar Fest for the beer. The tear gas was an extra.

The latter came courtesy of National Guard troops, who were dispatched to break up the party after it degenerated into a riot Saturday night.

Words used in usual ways can provide the basis for an alternative lede, like in this lede/nut graf combo:

When Joe Smith headed to Cedar Fest, he figured it would be a gas. It was.

But not in the way he imagined. Tear gas was used by National Guard troops to disperse party-goers after the annual celebration degenerated into a riot Saturday night.

These are just a few possibilities. But there are as many possible ways to do an alternative lede as you can imagine. As long as the method tells the story in the best ways to emphasize what makes a story interesting, relevant and/or useful, and as long as it's based and true to the context and facts of the situation, then it's okay.

Silly stories should be silly. Sad stories should be said. Be true to the facts.