Lead paragraph explained

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. Styles vary widely among the different types and genres of publications, from journalistic news-style leads to a more encyclopaedic variety.

Types of leads

• Journalistic leads emphasize grabbing the attention of the reader.^[1] In journalism, the failure to mention the most important, interesting or attention-grabbing elements of a story in the first paragraph is sometimes called "burying the lead". Most standard news leads include brief answers to the questions of who, what, why, when, where, and how the key event in the story took place. In newspaper writing, the first paragraph that summarizes or introduces the story is also called the "blurb paragraph", "teaser text" or, in the United Kingdom, the "standfirst".^[2]
• Encyclopedia leads tend to define the subject matter as well as emphasize the interesting points of the article.
• Features and general articles in magazines tend to be somewhere between journalistic and encyclopedian in style and often lack a distinct lead paragraph entirely.

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.^[3] This can be referred to with a variety of terms, including: the standfirst (UK),^[3] kicker (US),^[3] bank head(line), deck, dek, or subhead (US).

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.^[4]

Spelling

The term is sometimes spelled "lede".^[5] 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,"^[6] 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.^{[7] [8] [9]} 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]} The earliest appearance of "lede" cited by the OED is 1951.^[6] 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

• Abstract (summary)
• Editorial (also known as a "leader" in British English)
• Introduction (writing)
• Inverted pyramid (journalism)
• Nut graph
• Opening sentence

Notes and References

1. Book: Peha & Lester . Be a Writer: Your Guide to the Writing Life!: Proven Tips and Powerful Techniques to Help Young Writers Get Started . 125 . Leverage Factory . 2006 . 9780977300006 .
2. Book: Spark . David . Harris . Geoffrey . Practical Newspaper Reporting . 2010 . Sage Publications . 9781473903340 . 89, 90, 94, 167.
3. Web site: Standfirst. Double-Tongued Dictionary. 15 October 2004. 27 September 2010.
4. Web site: Pope. Geoff. "Foreword" Versus "Forward" . Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips. Macmillan Holdings, LLC. 18 November 2010. 8 December 2019.
5. Web site: Lede . Merriam-Webster Online . Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc . Chicago, IL, US . 2012. 2012-02-28.
6. Web site: lede, n.2 . Oxford English Dictionary . 1 July 2019.
7. Book: Harpel's Typograph, or Book of Specimens. 246 . thin strip of metal separating lines of type. . Self-published . Harpel. Oscar. 1870.
8. Web site: Bury the lede or bury the lead: which is right? . Merriam-Webster Online.
9. Web site: The Mavens' Word of the Day: lede . Carol . RandomHouse.com . "Maven's Word of the Day" blog (defunct as of 2012) . Random House/Bertelsmann . New York . November 28, 2000 . 2012-02-28 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120219122848/http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001128 . 19 February 2012 .
10. Web site: lede-vs-lead . Owens, Howard . HowardOwens.com . Owens Press . New York . September 18, 2011 . 2016-06-28 .
11. Book: William Metz. Newswriting: from lead to "30". 1977. Prentice-Hall. 978-0-13-617514-8. 62.
12. Book: Louis Martin Lyons. Reporting the news: selections from Nieman reports. 1965. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 286.
13. Book: Grant Milnor Hyde. Newspaper Editing - A Manual for Editors, Copyreaders and Students of Newspaper Desk Work. November 2008. Read Books. 978-1-4437-2632-0.
14. Book: Carl G. Miller. Modern Journalism. 1962. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 33. 9780030027307.
15. Book: Frank Luther Mott. American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years, 1690–1940. 2000. Routledge/Thoemmes Press. 978-0-415-22893-0.
16. Web site: Lead vs. lede. Grammarist.com . 28 March 2011 . 8 December 2019.
17. Web site: Why Do We 'Bury the Lede?'. Merriam-Webster. May 16, 2024.