Writing Leads and News Stories

I know I am going to have some absences today due to PSAT testing, so I thought I'd better share these to the class blog in case non-freshmen could use this information in order to write a better news story.

Basic Lead Writing

News Writing Structure

Lead Writing Exercises

News Writing for Readers

These presentations all discuss two essential aspects of news writing: leads and story structure. We are going to talk about these two issues in class today and then start writing drafts of our news stories.

How important are leads, you ask? Well, consider what veteran New Yorker writer John McPhee had to say on the subject.

"I've often heard writers say that if you have written your lead you have 90 percent of your story."

Thomas Boswell of the The Washington Post offered this assessment of leads.

"Once you find that idea or thread, all the other anecdotes, illustrations and quotes are pearls that hang on this thread," Boswell said. "The thread may seem very humble, the pearls may seem very flashy, but it's still the thread that makes the necklace."

So take some time to write a lead that works for your story and enables you to organize your material into a coherent story.

Since your interviews are due today, the next step is to write a draft of your story. I would like to see a draft of your summary lead at the beginning of class on Friday and a complete draft of the story at the beginning of class on Tuesday.