The lead..the thing that should be the easiest to write for a newspaper. But it actually isn't. I'm not just saying that after reading this chapter either, I'm also talking about personal experience. I was an editor for my hs school paper for 1 year in GS, and for 2 in Kiski when I went to middle school there. It was hard to write a lead that was concise but gave enough information. Now I see why, after reading this chapter--it was because I, along with other journalists sometimes--try to cram too much into the lead, instead of leaving it for other paragraphs.
I also found, in part thanks to this chapter, and the discussions (read: lectures) by Dr. Jerz, that you can have more than paragraph in your leader--but maybe like 45% of your information should be in your opening paragraph.
Posted by lougagliardi at September 27, 2005 11:59 AM | TrackBack