Chapter 4 - Summary Leads and Examples

A good summary lead can be accomplished by answering the 5Ws and H (who, what, where, when, why and how) in a declarative sentence. Short, sweet, and to the point.

From the NYT:

Anxious over the growing size of the proposed bill, two centrist senators are leading an effort to pare back the $900 billion package that is expected to head to a vote on Thursday.


BAGHDAD — The overwhelming winner of Iraq’s provincial elections was the Dawa party of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose candidates garnered the most votes of any party in nine provinces, but they appeared to fall short of being able to operate without coalition-building.

ISTANBUL — The four daily flights to Tel Aviv are still running. The defense contract signed in December has not been scrapped. But since Israel’s war in Gaza, relations with Turkey, Israel’s closest Muslim ally, have become strained.



These are good examples of leads because right in the first one or two sentences, I can tell if the story will interest me enough to keep reading or if I am going to skip the article and move onto the comics. Leads are like an article's hook and can make or break the piece, because all of the important information should be included right there in a couple sentences. The rest of the articles are simply for explanation and analysis with a few quotes.