{"id":533,"date":"2016-06-11T19:13:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-11T23:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/chapter\/summary-lead\/"},"modified":"2021-01-20T11:46:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T16:46:03","slug":"summary-lead","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/chapter\/summary-lead\/","title":{"raw":"5.6 Summary Lead","rendered":"5.6 Summary Lead"},"content":{"raw":"A summary lead concisely tells the reader the main idea of the story or conveys its news value. Most journalists and editors believe that the lead should come in the first sentence or first few sentences of a hard news article. Reporters use the term \u201cburying the lead\u201d or \u201cdelayed lead\u201d to describe one placed later in an article. A buried lead may give the impression that the writer wasn\u2019t able to determine what the real newsworthy material was, and can therefore reflect poorly on his or her journalistic judgment. In features or other soft news stories that use more dramatic storytelling techniques, the lead sometimes is buried in order to increase suspense or add an element of surprise.\r\n\r\nA summary lead should address the following questions:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><i><strong>Who<\/strong> is the story about? <\/i>or<i><strong> Who<\/strong> is involved?<\/i><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>What<\/strong> is the story about?<\/em> or <em><strong>What<\/strong> happened?<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>When<\/strong> did the event take place?<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Where<\/strong> did the event take place?<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Why<\/strong> did the event take place?<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>How<\/strong> did the event happen?<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nKeeping the 5Ws and H in mind when writing a news story will help you organize the content and find a focus for the article. News judgment consists of figuring out the organization of these aspects of the content and prioritizing them in terms of their importance. It\u2019s not necessary to cram the 5Ws and H into one sentence for the lead; however, the lead usually should contain information about the Who and What.\r\n\r\nTake a look at the lead in this article from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/bmo-human-rights-complaint-1.5812525\">CBC.<\/a>\r\n\r\nNow, let\u2019s answer the 5Ws and H for the lead:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Who?<\/strong>\u00a0Indigenous man and granddaughter and Bank of Montreal and Vancouver Police Department<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>What?<\/strong>\u00a0Human rights complaint filed<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>When?<\/strong>\u00a0Complaint filed on date of story, but in response to being handcuffed last year (second paragraph specifies Dec. 20)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Where?<\/strong>\u00a0Vancouver<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Why? <\/strong>Handcuffed while trying to open an bank account (false report of fraud to police)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>How?<\/strong>\u00a0Legal action<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn this case, the How of the story is not directly addressed in the summary lead, because of the complexity of the issue. Still, the reader can easily understand the main idea of the article. When you\u2019re practicing writing summary leads, remember to keep the sentence(s) relatively concise, with no more than 30 words.","rendered":"<p>A summary lead concisely tells the reader the main idea of the story or conveys its news value. Most journalists and editors believe that the lead should come in the first sentence or first few sentences of a hard news article. Reporters use the term \u201cburying the lead\u201d or \u201cdelayed lead\u201d to describe one placed later in an article. A buried lead may give the impression that the writer wasn\u2019t able to determine what the real newsworthy material was, and can therefore reflect poorly on his or her journalistic judgment. In features or other soft news stories that use more dramatic storytelling techniques, the lead sometimes is buried in order to increase suspense or add an element of surprise.<\/p>\n<p>A summary lead should address the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><i><strong>Who<\/strong> is the story about? <\/i>or<i><strong> Who<\/strong> is involved?<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>What<\/strong> is the story about?<\/em> or <em><strong>What<\/strong> happened?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>When<\/strong> did the event take place?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Where<\/strong> did the event take place?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Why<\/strong> did the event take place?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>How<\/strong> did the event happen?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keeping the 5Ws and H in mind when writing a news story will help you organize the content and find a focus for the article. News judgment consists of figuring out the organization of these aspects of the content and prioritizing them in terms of their importance. It\u2019s not necessary to cram the 5Ws and H into one sentence for the lead; however, the lead usually should contain information about the Who and What.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at the lead in this article from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/bmo-human-rights-complaint-1.5812525\">CBC.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s answer the 5Ws and H for the lead:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Who?<\/strong>\u00a0Indigenous man and granddaughter and Bank of Montreal and Vancouver Police Department<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>What?<\/strong>\u00a0Human rights complaint filed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>When?<\/strong>\u00a0Complaint filed on date of story, but in response to being handcuffed last year (second paragraph specifies Dec. 20)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Where?<\/strong>\u00a0Vancouver<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Why? <\/strong>Handcuffed while trying to open an bank account (false report of fraud to police)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>How?<\/strong>\u00a0Legal action<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In this case, the How of the story is not directly addressed in the summary lead, because of the complexity of the issue. Still, the reader can easily understand the main idea of the article. When you\u2019re practicing writing summary leads, remember to keep the sentence(s) relatively concise, with no more than 30 words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":515,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[63],"license":[55],"class_list":["post-533","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-jasmine-roberts","license-cc-by-nc"],"part":513,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/515"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/533\/revisions\/638"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/513"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/533\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingforpublicrelations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}