Exploring Feature Story Leads
The lead, often known as the lede, is the beginning of a story in journalism and is essential to drawing the reader in. These include questions, quotes, summaries, contrasts, anecdotal, descriptive, narrative, direct addresses, and shocking statement leads. Here are my results, along with pictures and quotes from the text for each.
➢ Anecdote- start with an insightful short story
The story is about teenagers trying to rescue fisherman from a river.
The lead sentence: "Three teenagers from Louisville, Kentucky [Kenay Valdes, Abraham Cruz, and Jacob Cruz] unexpectedly became heroes during what was supposed to be a simple fishing trip."
Next paragraph: "Kenay Valdes, Abraham Cruz and Jacob Cruz, all from Louisville, initially planned on heading to Indiana on Monday, April 21, but as they were driving there, they decided to visit Greenwood Boat Ramp — a spot closer to home, Spectrum News 1 reported."
➢ Description- set the mood by describing how someone or something looks
The story is about production designer Hannah Beachler explaining the 'Wakanda Forever' (sequel to Black Panther starring Chadwick Boseman) most meaningful new sets.
The lead sentence: "To build the world of 2018’s Black Panther, production designer Hannah Beachler spent 18 months putting together a planning document commonly referred to in the industry as a bible."
Next paragraph: "Not everyone’s is 550 pages, though, nor does it help them win an Academy Award. For the sequel, Wakanda Forever, Beachler’s work doubled. She had to both expand on the locations of the first film and craft a second whole new world: the underwater realm of Talokan, led by the anti-hero K’uk’ulkan/Namor (Tenoch Huerta). It’s a confidently specific visual feast, one dense with references to Yucatec Mayan culture, influenced by what Beachler describes as director Ryan Coogler’s “hard sci-fi” preferences, and populated by the oceanic flora and fauna beside which the Talokanil live (including a 15-foot orca made out of fiberglass). The sets were designed and constructed to emphasize practical effects, like the movie’s use of underwater filming. Here, Beachler breaks down four key locations. And, yes, her bible was once again a mammoth."
➢ Quotation- good if it catchy, insightful
The story by The Atlantic starts with a direct quote from a Trump supporter, providing immediate insight into the subject's perspective and setting the stage for the article's exploration of voter sentiments
The lead sentence: “Even if they don’t agree with everything he’s doing, he’s doing something.”
Next paragraph: Earlier this month, after it became clear that the Trump administration would not be facilitating the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a Salvadoran megaprison, I texted a close childhood friend. He’d voted for Donald Trump in each of the past three presidential elections, and I asked for his evaluation. “Trump might be taking it too far,” my friend replied. “But then again,” he added, “he’s a man of action and we wanted change.”
➢ Question- pose an engaging question
The story by Forbes is dedicated to offering actionable advice on crafting compelling success stories.
The lead sentence: Have you ever tried to pick your way through a poorly planned, poorly written customer success story? You know, one of those stories filled with vague benefits and jargon few can relate to?
Next paragraph: Such stories usually feature sentences and paragraphs that don’t quite connect. They have challenges buried in the results section, and results in the challenges section. They give you a sickly feeling that the publishing company lacked someone on the team with editing skills. Or even someone to provide strategic editorial oversight on briefs before they wound up in writers’ hands.
Been there. Experienced that.
➢ Suspenseful leads- intrigue makes a reader keep reading
The story by The Guardian is about someone believing was stealing her identity for nearly two decades.
The lead sentence: “For 18 years, I thought she was stealing my identity. Until I found her”
Next paragraph:"By the time the cop called “Lisa Davis”, I’d been sitting in the hard wooden pew in New York City criminal court for two hours. The courthouse swirled with diminished beauty: cracked marble, tarnished brass. It seemed so unlikely that it could feel like an actual hall of justice, that hope could find its way past the bulletproof glass and the metal detectors."
➢ Ironic leads- play on the unexpected
The story by Time is opens with the ironic notion of Donald Trump expressing interest in becoming Pope.
The lead sentence: President Donald Trump has some thoughts on who should be the next Pope—that is, if it can’t be himself
Next paragraph: “I’d like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice,” he joked to reporters on Tuesday, a prospect that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Sc) posted (hopefully facetiously) would have “many upsides.” It would certainly be a dramatic shift from the world’s first Latin American and first Jesuit Pope, who often sparred with Trump on issues of immigration, climate change and religion, to the first American, billionaire, and, critically, non-Catholic to serve as Pope—and concurrently with being President at that.
➢ Direct-address- use of “you” as if talking directly to the reader
The story by The Guardian is about the impact of the removal of Walmart in McDowell county in West Virginia.
The lead sentence: "What happened when Walmart left"
Next paragraph: "When Walmart left town, it didn’t linger over the goodbyes. It slashed the prices on all its products, stripped the shelves bare, and vanished, leaving behind only the ghostly shadow of its famous brand name and gold star logo on the front wall of a deserted shell."
➢ Words used in unusual ways- be clever and creative with the English language
The story by The New Yorker is about the concept of suspense in literature and life, using language in a nuanced and thought-provoking manner.
The lead sentence: "The Secrets of Suspense"
Next paragraph: "In my dreams, the baby could talk. A one-day-old, apparently understanding the conversation going on around her crib, suddenly weighed in with a factual correction; a three-day-old, still in the hospital, piped up to agree that the surgical procedure being recommended was both unnecessary and outlandishly expensive; an infant, evidently inferring the entire universe from first principles, observed that soon she would be able to refer to her mother’s sister’s fiancé as her uncle. In the months before my partner’s due date, I experienced so many variations on this recurrent dream that it finally took a turn for the meta. In that version, when our newborn began to talk, I turned to the assembled family members and exclaimed, “The dreams were prophetic!”
➢ Shockers: lead with an unexpected twist
The story by Newsweek begins with a startling statement about the physical effects of stress, immediately capturing attention.
The lead sentence: "In the mid-2000s, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris opened a children's medical clinic in the Bayview section of San Francisco, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. She quickly began to suspect something was making many of her young patients sick."
Next paragraph: She noticed the first clues in the unusually large population of kids referred to her clinic for symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—an inability to focus, impulsivity, extreme restlessness. Burke Harris was struck not just by the sheer number of ADHD referrals, but also by how many of the patients had additional health problems. One child arrived in her clinic with eczema and asthma and was in the 50th percentile of height for a 4-year-old. He was 7. There were kindergarteners with hair falling out, two children with extremely rare cases of autoimmune hepatitis, middle-school kids stricken with depression and an epidemic number of kids with behavioral problems and asthma.
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