One of the biggest "dos" I have learned is that a lead must answer the 6 questions: Who? Where? How? Why? When? and What? Leads need to be as specific as possible and answer as many of the 6 questions as possible.
Leads that are long and that drag on are a big "don't". The reader will get confused and not understand the story they are about to read. Another "don't" is that writers should not include opinions in their leads (assuming it isn't an opinion article).
Those are some of the "dos" and "don'ts" I have learned thus far, but as mentioned before I have a long way to go before I can fully understand leads.
.jpg)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYour right, you do want to be as specific as possible in your news leads. However, you do not want to answer all six of the questions in one lead. Striving to find the most important of those questions in a lead for a particular story is key. If you try to answer too many of those questions, your lead can get too wordy and drag on which is one of your big "don'ts."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm still trying to get the whole understanding about the leads as well. This class will surely make sure that we get the understanding that we will need to write an effective lead. Great job though by the way!
ReplyDeleteGrade: 9.5/10
ReplyDeleteMistake: should be six