Six Rules for Writing a Straight News Lead

TypewriterkeysBy Ken Blake, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Journalism
Middle Tennessee State University

Every news story begins with a lead (pronounced LEED), so learning to write a good lead is the first step in learning to write a good story. Journalists use many different styles of leads, depending on the situation. But most media writing students begin by learning the simplest and most common style: the straight news lead. Below are six rules for writing good straight news leads. You can also watch my approximately 15-minute, YouTube-hosted video lecture explaining the rules.

Following these rules will help you write a good lead every time. So will breaking one or more of them, but only if you do it intentionally and for a specific purpose. The statement I just wrote, for example, is a fragment. It violates a basic grammar rule. But I broke the rule to emphasize my point. That’s OK.

Here’s a summary of the rules. Scroll down for details about each rule:

  • Rule #1: A straight news lead should be a single paragraph consisting of a single sentence, should contain no more than 30 words, and should summarize, at minimum, the most newsworthy “what,” “where” and “when” of the story.
  • Rule #2: The lead’s first verb should express the main “what” of the story and should be placed among the lead’s first seven words.
  • Rule #3: The lead’s first verb — the same one that expresses the main “what” of the story — should be active voice, not passive voice.
  • Rule #4: If there’s a “who” involved in the story, the lead should give some indication of who the “who” is.
  • Rule #5: The lead should summarize the “why” and “how” of the story, but only if there’s room.
  • Rule #6: If what’s in the lead needs to be attributed, place the attribution at the end of the lead.

Rule #1: A straight news lead should be a single paragraph consisting of a single sentence, should contain no more than 30 words, and should summarize, at minimum, the most newsworthy “what,” “where” and “when” of the story.

  • Example: “Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning.”

The lead is a single-sentence paragraph. Note, please, that a lead should be written in ordinary English, not the clipped phrasing reserved for headlines like “Main Street home destroyed in early morning fire.” Headlines, which appear in large print above the stories they introduce, are written that way to conserve space. But people would consider you strange if you went around talking like that all the time. Your audience will consider you strange if you talk that way in your journalistic writing.

The lead contains 10 words — far fewer than the 30-word limit. Notice that the word count includes even little words like “a” and “on.” The lead also summarizes the main “what” of the story, which is that fire destroyed a house. It provides the “where” of the story with the phrase “on Main Street.” Finally, the lead gives the “when” of the story with the phrase “early Monday morning.”

Important note: There are some mental gymnastics involved in correctly conveying the “when” of a newspaper story. Suppose, for example, that today is Monday, and the fire happened this morning. You might be tempted to write the lead like this: “Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early this morning.” And doing so might be just fine if your lead were going to be published, read and discarded that same day. But if you’re writing something that won’t get distributed until the following day, keep in mind that someone who reads that the fire occurred “this morning” will inaccurately assume that “this morning” means “Tuesday morning.” Also, if you’re story is going to hang around on the Web for a while, “this morning” could mean just about anything to someone who reads it days, months or even years afterward, even if your story carries a time stamp. To avoid such problems, AP style recommends using the day of the week for the “when” of events within seven days of the current date. For dates outside that time frame, use the month and day. See you AP Stylebook’s “time element” and “months” entries for details.

Rule #2: The lead’s first verb should express the main “what” of the story and should be placed among the lead’s first seven words.

  • Example: “Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning.”

The verb “destroyed” expresses the main “what” of the story. “Destroyed” is the lead’s second word — a position that puts “destroyed” well in front of “Street,” the lead’s seventh word. Again, notice that the word count includes even little words like “a” and “on.”
There are no other verbs in front of “destroyed,” so “destroyed” is the lead’s first verb.

Following this rule will force you to quickly tell readers what the story is about.

Rule #3: The lead’s first verb — the same one that expresses the main “what” of the story — should be active voice, not passive voice. A verb is active voice if the verb’s subject did, is doing, or will do something.

  • Example: “Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning.”

“Destroyed” is the verb. “Fire” is the verb’s subject. “Fire” did something. It destroyed. A verb is passive voice if the verb’s subject had, is having, or will have something done to it. For example, if the lead were, “A house was destroyed by fire on Main Street early Monday morning,” “was” would be the verb, “house” would be the verb’s subject, and “house” would have had something done to it. The house “was destroyed” (by fire). If you read your lead and feel compelled to add something like the “by fire” phrase after the verb in order to express who or what did what the verb is describing, chances are you’ve written a passive-voice lead.

Rule #4: If there’s a “who” involved in the story, the lead should give some indication of who the “who” is.

  • First example: “An elderly Murfreesboro man died Monday when an early morning fire raged through his Main Street home.”

The “who” is “an elderly Murfreesboro man.” In this case, the “who” probably isn’t someone whose name readers would recognize. As a result, the “who” angle of the lead focuses on what things about the “who” might make the “who” important to the reader. In this case, it’s the fact that the man was older and lived in Murfreesboro. That’s called writing a “blind lead.” The man’s name will be given later in the story.

  • Second example: “Murfreesboro Mayor Joe Smith died Monday when an early morning fire raged through his Main Street home.”

Smith is the local mayor, and most readers probably will recognize his name.
As a result, the lead’s “who” element gives his name. So, use  the name of the “who” in the lead only when the name is likely to be recognized by a large percentage of your audience.

Rule #5: The lead should summarize the “why” and “how” of the story, but only if there’s room.

  • Example: “An elderly Murfreesboro man died early Monday morning when fire sparked by faulty wiring raged through his Main Street home.”

In this example, “… fire … raged through his Main Street home …” explains why the man died. Meanwhile, “… sparked by faulty wiring …” explains how the blaze began.

Rule #6: If what’s in the lead needs to be attributed, place the attribution at the end of the lead, never at the beginning of the lead.

  • Example: “Faulty wiring most likely sparked the blaze that claimed the life of an elderly Murfreesboro man last week, the city’s arson investigator concluded Monday.”

Attribution is a reference indicating the source of some bit of information. In this case, the attribution is the phrase, “the city’s arson investigator concluded Monday.” Generally, attribute assertions that represent anything other than objective, indisputably true information. Here, it is objectively and indisputably true that the man is dead, that his house was destroyed, that it all happened early Monday morning, and that the house was on Main Street. But the arson investigator’s assertion that faulty wiring caused the blaze represents the investigator’s opinion. It is, of course, an insightful opinion based upon his training and expertise, which is the only reason it is worth including at all. But it is an opinion nonetheless. Therefore, the assertion needs to be attributed to the investigator so readers can decide for themselves how credible the assertion is.

Be aware that this rule and many of the others apply mainly to written forms of journalism. In the lead for radio or TV news story, for example, attribution, if included at all, usually goes at the beginning, as in, “The city’s arson investigator concluded Monday that faulty wiring most likely sparked the blaze that claimed the life of an elderly Murfreesboro man last week.” The idea behind this alternative organization of the lead is that audience members, when listening to or watching the story rather than reading it, need a little extra time to start mentally processing  the information being presented, and they’ll be more likely to remember the information at the end of the lead than the information at the beginning of the lead.