News Writing: Bringing Life to the Lead

Breaking the Monotony: Summary versus Feature Lead

            Usually, journalistic writing often uses the summary lead (5 Ws - what, who, when, who, where, why) in writing the Lead of the news story. This type "leads" the reader into the story right away. But there should also be variety to avoid being too “straight” or being too “hard” in writing the Lead. To break this predictability but still using the 5 Ws, we can also use the Feature Lead which brings some imagination and life to the story.

For example, these are the initial information about the news:

What – Hurricane Ike

When – Tuesday

Where – U.S and Mexico

So, the summary lead may be written this way:

“Hurricane Ike hit the U.S. and Mexico on Tuesday killing thousands.”

            But using the feature lead, CBS News wrote:

“Hurricane Ike moved into the warm waters of the Gulf and took aim at the U.S. and Mexican coasts Tuesday after bringing down aging buildings in Havana and tearing through western Cuba's tobacco country.” (September 9, 2008)

            Another example, the information are as follows:

Who – Two American Astronauts

When – July 20, 1969

Where - landed on the moon

            A summary lead may be written, thus: 

                      “Two American astronauts landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.”

            But the New York Times, using the Feature lead, wrote:

“Men have landed and walked on the moon.

Two Americans, astronauts of Apollo 11, steered their fragile four-legged lunar module safely and smoothly to the historic landing yesterday at 4:17:40 P.M., Eastern daylight time.” (New York Times, July 21, 1969)