Different Types of Leads for Journalistic Writing

Material for this post adapted from the JEA Curriculum’s Basic Lead Writing Lesson.

What is a lead?

The first sentence of the story. It summarizes the facts of the story (the 5W’s and H). It tells the most important information and the newest information. It grabs your readers’ attention.

Types of News Leads

Use these often:

• “What” lead – Starts with what happened or what the story is about.
• “Why” lead – Begins with the cause of the story, why it happened.
• “How” lead – Begins how the event happened. This sometimes requires more explanation than you can fit in a lead, but when you can, use the how.

Use this sometimes:

• “Who” lead – Starts with a person or group. This is only most important when the person is well known or interesting because of who he/she is. Use this when the person you’re writing about is the most important reason you’re writing the story.

Avoid starting with these:

• “When” lead – Begins with time. Almost never the most important factor.
• “Where” lead – Begins with a place. Rarely is this the most important factor.

Other Types of Leads for Other Sections (Features/Entertainment/Sports)

ALLUSION LEAD: An allusion lead refers to a historical event or literary phrase to arouse the reader’s curiosity. Allusion leads should be obvious so that the reader recognizes the reference being made.

Neither sleet, nor snow, nor hail, nor sectional postponement could hold the girls’ soccer team back as it captured third place in the Lake Suburban Conference and ended the season with a 12–4 record.

COMPARE/CONTRAST LEAD: This type of lead uses comparisons to identify similarities, differences, opposites or extreme relationships.

Winning the state gymnastics all-around competition was a huge accomplishment for petite, 95-pound Tara Rogers.

DESCRIPTIVE LEAD: Based on the sensory details of a scene, a descriptive lead paints a vivid, verbal picture of an event, like a camera does visually. The descriptive lead conveys the emotional state of the scene with strong, detailed language. As a result, this style of lead may be longer than others.

There was little talk, only the sound of cleats on the locker room floor, as the players gathered around the list the freshman baseball coach had taped to his office door. As players spied their names, the silence erupted into whoops of excitement and the slapping sound of athletes exchanging high fives. But some didn’t laugh or shout. They couldn’t. Their names weren’t on the list. They were cut.

NARRATIVE LEAD: Similar to a descriptive lead, a narrative lead uses strong action verbs to illustrate an event or moment. This lead offers the author more creative freedom to introduce a particular character, how he moves, acts and speaks.

Alison huddled silently, hearing only a light crunch as she shifted her cold feet in their boots. Her fingers numb in her mittens, her nose red from the crisp air, she desperately awaited the warm, yellow school bus.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE LEAD: A personal experience lead introduces and explores a topic by telling the tale of one specific person. The details of the story are then built around his or her relationship with the topic.

Sarah often heard rude comments from her peers about her weight. She also noticed that every magazine, movie and TV show featured ultra-thin girls. The only answer was to become skinny.

SHOCKING STATEMENT LEAD: Writers use this lead to WOW the reader with unusual or shocking facts.

The high school cafeteria serves 6,000 pounds of french fries, 8,000 hamburgers and 15,000 pizzas every month.

STACCATO LEAD: A dramatic style, the staccato lead is composed of a series of sentences or phrases that create a verbal rhythm.

Call it a sickness. A season. A phase. Call it a pleasure. A distraction. Call it spring fever.

Just like design and photography, sometimes you need a little bit of inspiration for your lead writing. Check out this slideshow for samples from Vanity Fair.