types of lead, in an editorial

• A lead is the first sentence or paragraph that gives the audience the most important details of the story in a concise, clear and interesting manner
• things to remember when writing the lead

  5 WS and 1 H

  who, what,where,when,why

  how
• • keep it simple
  • easy to understand
  • get straight to the point
  • avoid long flowery sentences
• the abc of journalism

  Accuracy

  brevity

  clarity
• ~ traditional lead

  traditional lead is the most common type of lead. It gives a summary of the story
• ~ punch lead

  punch lead uses short, forceful statements that attract the readers attention, it is always followed by a summary that will give context
• nut graph is short for "nutshell paragraph", it summarazies the main points and gives context to the story. Always in conjuction with alternative leads used in feature storys
• ~ question lead

  A questions lead starts with a question and is followed by a nut graph
• ~ quotation lead

  make sure that the quote youll use is relevant to the whole story
• ~ descriptive lead

  descriptive lead begins with adjectives that describe your subject, it is usually used in feature stovres