Lead paragraph

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A lead paragraph (sometimes shortened to lead; in the United States sometimes spelled lede) is the opening paragraph of an article, book chapter, or other written work that summarizes its main ideas. [1] Styles vary widely among the different types and genres of publications, from journalistic news-style leads to a more encyclopaedic variety.

Contents

Types of leads

Leads vary enormously in length, intent, and content depending on the genre of the piece.

Other introductions

In journalism, there is the concept of an introductory or summary line or brief paragraph, located immediately above or below the headline, and typographically distinct from the body of the article. [4] This can be referred to with a variety of terms, including: the standfirst (UK), [4] kicker (US), [4] bank head(line), deck, dek, or subhead (US).[ citation needed ]

A foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature, written by someone other than the author to honour or bring credibility to the work, unlike the preface, written by the author, which includes the purpose and scope of the work. [5]

Spelling

The term is sometimes spelled "lede". [6] The Oxford English Dictionary suggests this arose as an intentional misspelling of "lead", "in order to distinguish the word's use in instructions to printers from printable text," [7] similarly to "hed" for "head(line)" and "dek" for "deck". Some sources suggest the altered spelling was intended to distinguish from the use of "lead" metal strips of various thickness used to separate lines of type in 20th century typesetting. [8] [9] [1] However, the spelling "lede" first appears in journalism manuals only in the 1980s, well after lead typesetting's heyday. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [ excessive citations ] The earliest appearance of "lede" cited by the OED is 1951. [7] According to Grammarist, "lede" is "mainly journalism jargon". [16]

"Bury the lead" expression

The colloquial expression "burying the lead" refers to a writer intentionally hiding the most important aspects of a news story in a later paragraph. This could be done for several reasons: to tease the reader into reading through other information and/or viewing various advertisements, or to hide a politically inconvenient or embarrassing revelation, such as when a theory or position of the writer, publisher, or their benefactors has been revealed to be incorrect. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, speech marks, quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name. Quotation marks may be used to indicate that the meaning of the word or phrase they surround should be taken to be different from that typically associated with it, and are often used in this way to express irony. They are also sometimes used to emphasise a word or phrase, although this is usually considered incorrect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synonym</span> Words or phrases of the same meaning

A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be replaced by another in a sentence without changing its meaning.

News style, journalistic style, or news-writing style is the prose style used for news reporting in media, such as newspapers, radio and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inverted pyramid (journalism)</span> Communication of major details before minor details

The inverted pyramid is a metaphor used by journalists and other writers to illustrate how information should be prioritised and structured in prose. It is a common method for writing news stories and has wide adaptability to other kinds of texts, such as blogs, editorial columns and marketing factsheets. It is a way to communicate the basics about a topic in the initial sentences. The inverted pyramid is taught to mass communication and journalism students, and is systematically used in English-language media.

Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have some degree of speaking ability, but choose not to speak because of the negative or unwanted attention atypical voices sometimes attract. Such people communicate using sign language. Some consider it to be a derogatory term if used outside its historical context; the preferred term today is simply deaf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Press release</span> Information provided for public relations

A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considered a primary source, meaning they are original informants for information. A press release is traditionally composed of nine structural elements, including a headline, dateline, introduction, body, and other components. Press releases are typically delivered to news media electronically, ready to use, and often subject to "do not use before" time, known as a news embargo.

An op-ed piece is a short newspaper column that represents a writer's strong, informed, and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted audience. It is a written prose piece that expresses the opinion of an author or entity with no affiliation with the publication's editorial board. The term is short for "opposite the editorial page", referring to the practice of newspapers placing op-eds on the opposite side of their editorial page. The New York Times is often credited with developing and naming the modern op-ed page.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreword</span> Introductory section of a book

A foreword is a piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells. Later editions of a book sometimes have a new foreword prepended, which might explain in what respects that edition differs from previous ones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typographical error</span> Mistake made in typing printed material

A typographical error, also called a misprint, is a mistake made in the typing of printed or electronic material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual typesetting. Technically, the term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger, but excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors, or changing and misuse of words such as "than" and "then". Before the arrival of printing, the copyist's mistake or scribal error was the equivalent for manuscripts. Most typos involve simple duplication, omission, transposition, or substitution of a small number of characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eggcorn</span> Altered phrase that is still plausible

An eggcorn is the alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase having a different meaning from the original but which still makes sense and is plausible when used in the same context. Thus, an eggcorn is an unexpectedly fitting or creative malapropism. The autological word "eggcorn" is itself an eggcorn, derived from acorn. Eggcorns often arise as people attempt to make sense of a stock phrase that uses a term unfamiliar to them, as for example replacing "Alzheimer's disease" with "old-timers' disease", or William Shakespeare's "to the manner born" with "to the manor born".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Ws</span> Checklist for a journalists lead/lede: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

The Five Ws is a checklist used in journalism to ensure that the "lead" or "lede" contains all the essential points of a story. As far back as 1913, reporters were taught that the lead/lede should answer these questions:

<i>Websters Third New International Dictionary</i> Unabridged American English dictionary

Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged is an American English-language dictionary published in September 1961. It was edited by Philip Babcock Gove and a team of lexicographers who spent 757 editor-years and $3.5 million. The most recent printing has 2,816 pages, and as of 2005, it contained more than 476,000 vocabulary entries, 500,000 definitions, 140,000 etymologies, 200,000 verbal illustrations, 350,000 example sentences, 3,000 pictorial illustrations and an 18,000-word Addenda section.

In the structure of written articles in journalism, the nut graph or nut graf is a paragraph following the lede, or opening paragraph, that proceeds to explain the context of the news or other story "in a nutshell". The abbreviated term can be spelled in these two ways, but also in ways that join the words in these compound expressions. In the case of a two-paragraph extended lede, the nut graph follows those two, as needed; hence, the nut graph is generally the second or third paragraph following a journalistic lede.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feature story</span> Piece of non-fiction writing about news

A feature story is a piece of non-fiction writing about news covering a single topic in detail. A feature story is a type of soft news, news primarily focused on entertainment rather than a higher level of professionalism. The main subtypes are the news feature and the human-interest story.

Binyamin Appelbaum is an American journalist and author. As of 2019, he is the lead writer on business and economics for the editorial board of The New York Times. He was previously a Washington correspondent for the Times, covering the Federal Reserve and other aspects of economic policy, and also had stints writing for The Florida Times-Union, The Charlotte Observer, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. He graduated in 2001 from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in history. He was an executive editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afghanistanism</span>

Afghanistanism is a term, first recorded in the United States, for the practice of concentrating on problems in distant parts of the world while ignoring controversial local issues. In other contexts, the term has referred to "hopelessly arcane and irrelevant scholarship", "fascination with exotic, faraway lands", or "Railing and shaking your fist at an unseen foe who is quite unaware of your existence, much less your fury".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common English usage misconceptions</span> Beliefs about the use of the English language considered by others as wrong

This list comprises widespread modern beliefs about English language usage that are documented by a reliable source to be misconceptions.

The word data is most often used as a singular collective mass noun in educated everyday usage. However, due to the history and etymology of the word, considerable controversy has existed on whether it should be considered a mass noun used with verbs conjugated in the singular, or should be treated as the plural of the now-rarely-used datum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doomscrolling</span> Compulsive consumption of large quantity of negative online news

Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is the act of spending an excessive amount of time reading large quantities of news, particularly negative news, on the web and social media. Doomscrolling can also be defined as the excessive consumption of short-form videos or social media content for an excessive period of time without stopping. The concept was coined around 2020, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This glossary of journalism is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in journalism, its sub-disciplines, and related fields, including news reporting, publishing, broadcast journalism, and various types of journalistic media.

References

  1. 1 2 Carol (November 28, 2000). "The Mavens' Word of the Day: lede". RandomHouse.com. New York: Random House/Bertelsmann. "Maven's Word of the Day" blog (defunct as of 2012). Archived from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-28. This tertiary source reuses information from other sources but does not name them.
  2. Peha & Lester (2006). Be a Writer: Your Guide to the Writing Life!: Proven Tips and Powerful Techniques to Help Young Writers Get Started. Leverage Factory. p. 125. ISBN   9780977300006.
  3. Spark, David; Harris, Geoffrey (2010). Practical Newspaper Reporting. Sage Publications. pp. 89, 90, 94, 167. ISBN   9781473903340.
  4. 1 2 3 "Standfirst". Double-Tongued Dictionary . 15 October 2004. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  5. Pope, Geoff (18 November 2010). ""Foreword" Versus "Forward"". Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips. Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  6. "Lede". Merriam-Webster Online. Chicago, IL, US: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-28.
  7. 1 2 "lede, n.2". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  8. Harpel, Oscar (1870). Harpel's Typograph, or Book of Specimens. Self-published. p.  246. thin strip of metal separating lines of type.
  9. "Bury the lede or bury the lead: which is right?". Merriam-Webster Online.
  10. Owens, Howard (September 18, 2011). "lede-vs-lead". HowardOwens.com. New York: Owens Press. Retrieved 2016-06-28.
  11. William Metz (1977). Newswriting: from lead to "30". Prentice-Hall. p. 62. ISBN   978-0-13-617514-8.
  12. Louis Martin Lyons (1965). Reporting the news: selections from Nieman reports. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 286.
  13. Grant Milnor Hyde (November 2008). Newspaper Editing - A Manual for Editors, Copyreaders and Students of Newspaper Desk Work. Read Books. ISBN   978-1-4437-2632-0.
  14. Carl G. Miller (1962). Modern Journalism. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 33. ISBN   9780030027307.
  15. Frank Luther Mott (2000). American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years, 1690–1940. Routledge/Thoemmes Press. ISBN   978-0-415-22893-0.
  16. "Lead vs. lede". Grammarist.com. 28 March 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  17. "Why Do We 'Bury the Lede?'". Merriam-Webster . Retrieved May 16, 2024.