Leads

Leads/Nut Graph

• Hard News lead—also called a “summary lead.”

• Nut graphs—also called the “focus graph.”

• Soft lead—also called a “feature lead” or a “delayed lead.”

• A nervous flight attendant was having trouble taking a urine drug test. So she darnk a glass of water—and another—and another.

• Soft lead: who, what.

• In an effort to reduce the number of unwanted pets put to death each year, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed the nation’s first law requiring owners of dogs and cats to buy a breeding license or get their sterilized.

• Hard-news lead and nut graph

• Rescue workers combed a rugged area in the Tucson Mountains yesterday evening in search of a UA music professor who has been missing since Tuesday night.

• Updated lead (Hard news)

• A Florida law student was held Tuesday on a charge she hired a hit man to kill a secretary who found out the student had stolen an exam, police said.

• Hard-news lead (summary lead): Who, what, when, why.

• Southwest Missouri State University must release its campus crime reports to the public, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in a case that could affect colleges across the nation.

• Impact lead (summary lead with impact)

Fact vs. Opinion in Leads

• An 88-year old man died Monday afternoon when fire spread through his second-floor apartment at the Wellington Arms Apartments in north St. Louis County.

• Fact

Fact vs. Opinion in Leads

• An 88-year old man died in north St. Louis County Monday afternoon, apparently after he started a fire while smoking in bed, authorities said.

• Opinion (at time of press)

Fact vs. Opinion in Leads

• The body of a man who had been fatally stabbed was discovered Monday morning in a city trash bin in the Lewis Place neighborhood, police said.

• Attributed Fact

• Skippack farmer John W. Hasson stood ankle-deep in mud, pumping milk into a wooden trough as his pigs, squealing and grunting, snouts quivering, climbed over each other to get to their feed.

• Descriptive lead

• When a shock wave from a magnitude 4.7 earthquake rolled though Anchorage Wednesday morning, dentist Kendall Skinner had just inserted a 3-inch needle into the mouth of a patient and begun an injection.

• Anecdotal lead (uses story about a particular person; an anecdote)

• Police Officer Juan Cabrera ran as fast as he could down the street.“I can’t find him,” he yelled.

• Narrative lead

• Nita walked slowly down the narrow hall, deftly guiding her tottering 11-month-old son around the abandoned baby walkers, strollers and toys.

• Focus-on-a-person lead

• Burlington, Vt.—This is no ordinary public library.

• Teaser lead

• They know who you are, what you eat, how you procreate—and where to find you.

• Mystery lead

• ANDOVER, Kan.—Melinda Easterbrook knows exactly how long it took for a tornado to blast apart her comfortable home while she and her husband huddled in the basement.

“It lasted five Hail Marys and two Our Fathers, but you have to say them quickly,” she said yesterday.

• Build-on-a-quote lead

• Boston College has an assistant dean for alcohol and drug education. Rutgers University sets aside dorm rooms for recovering student alcoholics. The University of Nevada bars students from leaving school sports events to make alcohol runs.

• List leads

• What are the odds of finding your true love by placing an ad with a telephone dating service?

• Question lead

• Nick Agid’s workshop is just a stone’s throw from the Torrance post office. Good thing, too. When Agid drops a post card into the mail, it lands with a five-pound thud.

• Cliché lead

How to Find Your Lead

• What is the main point of the story?• Consider reader interest• Memorable fact or impression• Focus on a person• Descriptive approach• Use a quote• Problem/solution• Narrative Storytelling