Sunday, September 20, 2009

Summary ledes vs. Feature ledes

In journalism, there are many different ways to start a story depending on what kind of information you want the reader to get out of it and what the story is about.

Summary ledes focus on the who, what, when, where, why and how of a story. Summary ledes are best used in cases of whats called "hard news" --the story is not supposed to "tip toe" around an issue, rather it gets to the point right away.

Feature ledes, however, are different in that they are used in the case of "soft news". This type of lede allows the story to unfold slower and are used to make the reader want to continue reading the story the writer wrote.

Some examples of Feature ledes are:

Story by Baltimore Sun writer Liz F. Kay "
Smelly water floods Towson basement"

The problem: Smelly runoff from a nearby gas station floods a Towson home.
The back story: When it rains in Towson, it floods at Jerry Cornett's house.

Another example can be seen in another Baltimore Sun article by
"McDonogh School's garden yields 1st harvest"

With grunts and groans, the four kindergartners hefted the plump pumpkin, at times faltering under its weight.

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