Strong Leads

Completing the assignment about leads brought me back to my Signpost days. I wrote for the a&e section for two semesters. When I reported for The Signpost, I didn't really know anything about journalism. Now that I've taken several journalism classes and have more writing experience, I am embarrassed by some of the leads I wrote. I wish I could go back and redo some of them, but since I can't, I'll just focus on leads more in the future. I used to always write the summary lead, stating the who, what, when, where, why, and how. This lead is appropriate for a hard news story, but not so much for a feature piece.

Some tips I know now about writing leads are as follows. Avoid posing a question. Avoid starting with a quote. Grab the reader's attention. Start with the most interesting information. Try to keep the sentence under 30 words. Also, remember not to cram all the summary lead information into the sentence. I can honestly say that I wish I had learned more about leads a long time ago.

Now for the editing mistake I found this week. I found this article on The Signpost's website, and I shall leave the reporter nameless. I would like to add, though, that the reporter is DEFINITELY not me. But if it were, it would be one of the first articles I ever wrote. Here's the lead: Weber State University's Department of Performing Arts will present the Symphonic Band, directed by Dr. Thomas Root, on Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the Browning Center for Performing Arts' Austad Auditorium. The reporter got the summary lead correct, but considering this is an a&e story, it should have been more creative.