报刊选读2015-3-3NewsLead解析.ppt

In another word, it is the journalist’s promise to the reader of what is to come. After reading the lead, the reader makes a critical decision on whether he or she should read on. According to Donald Murray, author of Writing for Readers, “Three seconds and the reader decides to read or move on to the next story.”(Jim Hall, 2007) That is all the time the lead has to catch the reader’s glance and hold it; all the time the lead has to entice （吸引）and inform readers. Its importance is self-evident. 1) Succinct To fulfill its functions, the lead tries to tell the main points and outline the story in the most economical way. Some journalists even maximize it into a single sentence; some news agencies limit the number of words in the lead 2) Informative The lead should tell the readers the essence of the event. In fact the main factors, that are, the “five W’s and H (who, what, when, where, why and how)” are usually being told in the lead paragraph. These words convey what we call “ news values”, which guide us to put the most newsworthy elements at the beginning not the end of the paragraph. 3) Intriguing Lead is also called “grabber”, which comes from the function of the first paragraph of our news story. How to achieve the purpose of luring or attracting is a problem deserving to study. Stereotyped lead is the biggest enemy for a journalist to avoid. Language features of News Lead Writer John McPhee once said, “A lead should not be cheap, flashy（华而不实的）, blaring a great fanfare of trumpets（大吹喇叭）, and then a mouse comes out of its hole.” So the words selected in a news lead must be honest to the fact, and the lead should never promise what does not follow the story. plain and common-used words to replace or concisely explain special terms that are difficult for common readers to understand. In an age of information explosion, journalists, in face of increasing specialization and complex technology, are called upon to write about many highly