The document provides guidelines for writing effective news leads or introductions to news stories. It discusses different types of grammatical leads that can be used, including prepositional phrase leads, infinitive phrase leads, participial phrase leads, gerundial phrase leads, and clause leads. Examples are given for each type of lead. The document also emphasizes that the first 10 words of a lead are most important and should grab the reader's attention.
The document provides guidelines for writing effective news leads or introductions to news stories. It discusses different types of grammatical leads that can be used, including prepositional phrase leads, infinitive phrase leads, participial phrase leads, gerundial phrase leads, and clause leads. Examples are given for each type of lead. The document also emphasizes that the first 10 words of a lead are most important and should grab the reader's attention.
The document provides guidelines for writing effective news leads or introductions to news stories. It discusses different types of grammatical leads that can be used, including prepositional phrase leads, infinitive phrase leads, participial phrase leads, gerundial phrase leads, and clause leads. Examples are given for each type of lead. The document also emphasizes that the first 10 words of a lead are most important and should grab the reader's attention.
The document provides guidelines for writing effective news leads or introductions to news stories. It discusses different types of grammatical leads that can be used, including prepositional phrase leads, infinitive phrase leads, participial phrase leads, gerundial phrase leads, and clause leads. Examples are given for each type of lead. The document also emphasizes that the first 10 words of a lead are most important and should grab the reader's attention.
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Grammatical
Beginning Lead Flora F. Balquiedra Paete ES Division of Laguna Lead Checklist (from “News Writing” by Anna McKane)
￮ Ideal Length - Aim for between 20 and 25 words
￮ The three things test – (word count, can be read in one breath, and with 2 to 3 ideas presented) ￮ Don’t start with subsidiary clause: go for the action first. ￮ The first 10 words are the most important – make sure they grab your reader
2 Lead Checklist (from “News Writing” by Anna McKane)
￮ Mention a person name only if your average
reader knows who s/he is. ￮ Don’t begin with time or place. ￮ Don’t begin a news story with a direct quote.
3 Grammatical Beginning Lead There are times when the lead is introduced by a kind of grammatical form which is usually a phrase or a clause used to emphasize a feature. Here the important W’s are found in the main clause. Prepositional 1 Phrase Lead Begins with a preposition and features one aspect of the story which the reporter feels deserves special attention. Example:
With brooms and other cleaning
equipment, boy scouts from the Manila Public High Schools clean the city markets in consonance with Mayor Lito Atienza’s CLEAN and Beautification Drive.
6 Example:
After reading the staff editorial
denouncing the administration’s dress code, the principal tossed the student newspaper to the floor, stamped his feet and screamed, “Heads will roll”.
7 Infinitive 2 Phrase Lead Begins with to plus a verb and features purpose or dramatic action or to create a minor note of suspense. Example:
￮ To encourage tourism, balikbayans
are given a warm welcome by their fellow Filipinos.
9 Example:
￮ To clear the allegations, Philippine
Transparency Monitoring Group, a private taxpayer’s organization, said today that the proposed municipal budget of P900-million is more than the municipal government can afford.
10 Participial 3 Phrase Lead Begins with a present tense verb or past participle and features action. Often, it answers the news questions “why” or “how” Example: ￮ Hoping to cop first place, the PNU wood pushers honed up for the chess championship games. (present participle)
￮ Dressed like priests, robbers
were able to enter the bank. (past participle) ￮ . 12 Gerundial 4 Phrase Lead Begins with a gerund and features action or an interesting detail. Example:
￮ Winning the development
communication trophy during the national press conference was Araullo High School’s best achievement of the year.
14 Example:
￮ To meet the needs of the water ratio,
MWSS decided to open the Angat Dam.
15 5 Clause Lead Begins with a clause which may either be independent or subordinate, or may either be a noun or an adjectival or adverbial clause. Example:
￮ Because Sept. 9 was Osmeña Day,
all lessons dealt with the life of the late President Sergio Osmeña Sr. (Subordinate, adverbial)
17 Exercise
Identify the grammatical lead
used in the following then, replace it with another grammatical lead.
18 1 As an unprecedented drought scorches large swathes of Sweden’s green pastures, farmers are having to send their animals to slaughter because they have no hay left to feed them.
(The Philippine Star,Vol.XXXII No. 357,
Saturday, July 21, 2018)
19 2 Amid the recent killings of two mayors in Luzon, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) in Iloilo wishes to revisit security concerns of local mayors.
(The Philippine Star,Vol.XXXII No. 343,
Saturday, July 7, 2018)
20 3 Having intentionally steered England into what’s widely considered the weaker half of the World Cup’s knockout bracket, coach Gareth Southgate is now casting the upcoming quarterfinal against Sweden as “bloody difficult.”
(The Philippine Star,Vol.XXXII No. 343,
Saturday, July 7, 2018) 21 “What ever you choose as your starting point, it should immediately bring the story to life and get the reader involved.” 22 - http://journalistsresource.org. Thanks!
23 References ￮ Cruz, Ceciliano J. (2010). Campus Journalism and School Paper Advising, Fourth Edition. Rex Bookstore, Inc.:Manila ￮ McKane, Anna (2006). News Writing, First Edition. Sage Publications Ltd:London ￮ http://www.uiltexas.org
