Leads, leads. Why are they so important?

How To Write Good Story Leads

     Journalism leads are like first impressions. You want to make sure they're good.

___The way journalists report the news may be changing, but having a strong story opening remains as important as ever.

Have a look at the following video and start thinking about the topic:

Remember: A lead sets the tone and mood for the rest of your story, so choose carefully. Depending on what you're writing about, certain leads may be more appropriate than others.

http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199846412/student/chapter8/exercise/exercise2/

Activities

Follow the instructions for each of the sections below.

Condensing Lengthy Leads

Activity 1

Condense each of these leads to no more than two typed lines, or about 20 words.

1.    Roger Datolli, 67, of 845 Conway Road, a retired attorney and husband of Mayor Sabrina Datolli, who is serving her fourth term as mayor, was injured in a three-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon around 3:20 p.m. at the intersection of Warren and Davidson avenues, suffering a broken leg and several broken ribs when the car he was driving was struck broadside by a pickup truck driven by Jerry R. Harris, 31, of 2245 Broadway Ave., and then was pushed into the path of another vehicle.

2.    The city Planning and Zoning Commission met Thursday for its regularly scheduled  meeting and voted 3-2 to approve a joint plan by the citys Council of Government and the local Chamber of Commerce to renovate the core downtown business district by building a convention center and sports arena complex that will serve as a site for business meetings and conferences as well as possibly host a minor league hockey team on the Olympic-size ice rink planned for the site.

Activity 2

Using the Proper Sentence Structure

Rewrite the following leads, using the normal word order: 

subject, verb, direct object. 

Avoid starting the leads with a long clause or phrase. You may want to divide some of the leads into several sentences or paragraphs. Correct all errors.

1.    Wondering whether or not it was legally possible and if they could muster enough votes to support their desire to see changes implemented in the downtown historic section of the city, city council members Sandra Gandolf and Alice Cycler at the regular monthly city council meeting raised the issue of having the city's planning and zoning commission look into the possibility of creating a local board to oversee changes to buildings within the six-block downtown historic district.

2.    Because the victim contributed in large measure to his own death by refusing medical attention that might have saved his life after the incident, James K. Arico, the 47-year-old man accused of stabbing him in the chest during an argument seven months ago, was allowed to plead guilty to assault today and was sentenced to six months in the county jail. He had been charged with murder.

Activity 3

Emphasizing the News

Rewrite the following leads, emphasizing the news, not the attribution. Limit the attributions¹ to a few words and place them at the end, not the beginning, of the leads.

1.    At a news conference held at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., Monday afternoon the head of the agency told reporters that the Senate's approval of a plan to dump nuclear waste material in the Nevada desert near Las Vegas  will provide a safe haven for  more than 77,000 tons of radioactive waste.

2.    Tracy Tibitts, Lisa Drolshagen and Dorothy Brayton, all members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority at Iowa State University, appeared in a local courtroom this morning and testified that the defendant, Steven House, appeared drunk when he got into his car to leave the party moments before he struck and killed the pedestrian.

^{1 Attribution is stating who made the quote or gave the information}

Practice

Maybe you need some extra practice choosing the right words as a first step.

So, go to: https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/grammar-and-vocabulary-exams/choose-correct-word

Or recognizing words that do not belong?
For practice go to: https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/grammar-and-vocabulary-exams/odd-one-out

Or, is building words  your issue?
For practice go to: https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/grammar-and-vocabulary-exams/word-building

Prepositions are also important when writing, and a different preposition or a wrong one can be a disaster when writing leads.

For practice go to:https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/grammar-and-vocabulary-exams/words-go-together

Ok, now go to a lead exercise and check whether you are prepared for them.

Go to the link below and to really understand the exercise click the CHECK 1 button, that way you will have a clearer picture of what to do.

Go to: http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/intros.html

Good luck!

This is the end of our Lab work.

See you around and have a fantastic end of the term.

Prof. Maller

Lab session 10:The World of news. Extra, extra!

Lab session 10

The World of News

Dear students,

As you know, there are sections in newspapers to address readers'
penchant for different genres. Today we will discuss some of the 

best-known newspaper articles; and this time all the activities need to be done in WORD

Types of newspaper articles

Remember - all writing tasks are about understanding genre, audience, purpose and style (GAPS).

 In newspapers we can find:

·                     News articles: these are found at the front of a newspaper. They inform readers about things that are happening in the world or in the local area.

·                     Feature articles: these explore news stories in more depth. They may be triggered by a story that has been in the news for a while. The purpose of a feature is not just to tell you what has happened, but to explore or analyse the reasons why.

·                     Editorials, columns and opinion pieces: these are pieces by 'personality' writers. They might be there to inform (because the writer's expert opinion is valued), or they might be there to entertain (because the writer has a comic or interesting way of describing everyday life).

taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/creativewriting
/commissionsrev2.shtml.


Today in the lab, you will see the parts of a news article and practice how to write headlines and lead paragraphs.


Activity 1

Visit the following links and find one example for each element mentioned before:

1. News article

2. Feature article

3. Editorial

4. Opinion Column

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/americas

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

http://www.scotsman.com/#axzz3qgcq6Avw

Types of News

There are two types of news in a newspaper:

Hard news: they are stories which combine the concepts of seriousness and 

timeliness

 i.e. politics, economy, war, disasters, accidents, law, science, crimes, protests, technology, etc.

                  Soft  news: they are usually timeless. It could appear any day without affecting its newsworthiness. i.e. travel  destinations, beauty and health, recipes, etc.

Parts of a Newspaper Article

            Writing a piece of news is different from writing short stories. The language used is different, and the way it is organized also differs from any other type of writing.

Activity 2

Click on the link below to have an idea of what a newspaper article consists of.

http://www.nytimes.com/

        Choose an article that calls your attention and try to identify the following parts.  Use a different color   for the different parts.

- Headline

- By-line

- Lead

- Body

Headlines

            The headline is the title of the news article. The headline should be short, does not include a lot of detail, and should catch the readers’ attentions. It is normally not a complete sentence, and tries to summarize the main idea or subject of the article.

 It is often printed in larger letters than the rest of the article, and the major words are capitalized. 

How to write a headline

If you want to get extra help on this topic, visit:

http://goinswriter.com/catchy-headlines/

To have in mind...

Activity 3

                   Write headlines for these news stories. Follow the rules presented above. Copy the chart (LEAD) and then write your headlines next to each one. Be careful with your spelling and grammar.

LEAD	YOUR HEADLINE
1.         A large wolf blew down two houses today, forcing the inhabitants of each house, two pig brothers, to take shelter with their elder brother, who fortunately lived in a brick house.
2.        Today Bonnie Walker became the first Canadian woman to hike to the North Pole.  She made the trip from her home in Reed Lake, Manitoba, in forty seven days.
3.         The last dinosaur died today of an overdose of peanuts in the zoo at a little stone-age town called Plains in the centre of North America.

                  

                LEADS

            The lead paragraph is found at the beginning of the news article. The lead briefly answers the questions “who”, “what”, “when”, “why”, “where”, and “how”. The ‘skeleton’ of the story can be found here. it also grabs the reader's attention with the news immediately (the hook).

Activity 4

            Look at the following headlines and write their corresponding leads.  Organize your ideas using the table below. Complete the example with your teacher, as a model for the rest.

Headline:	Dog finds gold!
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?