北京大学英文广播电视新闻采写课Lecture2Newslead.pptVIP

Writing and Reporting for the Broadcast Media By Shang Jinghua Types of News Lead Direct Lead (Basic News Leads) Summary Lead Main-fact Lead Delayed Lead (Alternate Leads) The functions of the news lead A reporter must summarize the most newsworthy facts in sharp, clear sentences — a simple, straightforward account of what happened. Lecture 2 Basic News Lead Checklist The Questions a Lead Should Answer Sentence Structure in Leads How to Write an Effective Lead Avoiding Some Common Errors Breaking the Rules Rewriting Checklist for Writing News Leads Is your lead specific rather than vague and abstract? Have you avoided stating the obvious or the negative? Have you emphasized your story’s most unusual or unexpected developments? Have you emphasized your story’s most interesting and important developments? Have you emphasized your story’s magnitude — and its impact upon its participants and readers? Check list for Writing News Leads Have you used a complete sentence, the proper tense and all the necessary articles (“a”, “an” and “the”)? Is your lead concise? (If it exceeds three typed lines, examine the lead critically to determine whether it is wordy or repetitious or contains some unnecessary details. If your lead exceeds four typed lines, rewrite it.) Have you avoided writing a label lead that reports your story’s topic but not what was said or done about it? Check list for Writing News Leads Did you begin your lead with the news—the main point of the story? (If you began with attribution or the time and place your story occurred, rewrite it.) Have you used a relatively simple sentence structure, exercising particular care to avoid beginning the lead with a long phrase or clause? Have you used strong, active and descriptive verbs rather than passive verbs such as “is”, “are”, “was” and “were”? Check list for Writing News Leads Is every name that appears in the lead essential? (Avoid unfamiliar names—and names that require lengthy identification that could