from hard news to feature

hard news story vs. feature story

hard news

• direct• summary • inverted pyramid• facts

hard news story vs. feature story

feature

• narrative• detail• observation• facts• summary

hard news lead

rhythm5 Ws

summarize

rhythm

rhythm

hard lead

hard lead

What are the rules?

• 5 Ws• Identification (to ID or not)• Summarize

soft lead

• one of the 5 w’s• detail

soft lead – New York Times

soft leadsobservation

soft leadsSetting a scene

soft leadsdetail

a witty lead emerges from the story itself.

soft leads

soft leads

ignore the rules

… but make sure it works

A different kind of storyThe hard lead (the w’s)

A 32-year-old Miami woman shot and killed her husband yesterday in a Dade County suburb after an argument, police said.

soft lead

The man she loved slapped her face. Furious, she says she told him never, ever to do that again. “What are you going to do, kill me?” he asked, and handed her a gun. “Here, kill me,” he challenged. She did

• meaningful detail

Blackboard Documents

Shooting at Church’s

soft leads

Church’s chicken

Jmikelyons.com > Schedule > Church’s chicken

soft leads

soft lead (the top narrow part)

nut graf (recap – the wide part)

A different kind of storyEdna Buchanan on leads:

(My) idea of a successful lead is one that could cause a reader who is breakfasting with his wife to "spit out his coffee, clutch his chest, and say, 'My god, Martha. Did you read this?"

soft leadsGary Robinson died hungry.He had a taste for Church's fried

chicken. He wanted the three-piece box for $2.19, plus tax.

Instead he got three bullets.