The Lead (blogpost 7.0)

On writing news story leads: 

• A news lead typically written in 40 words or less
• starts with the main point of the article 
• the most important questions to answer are who and what
• could start with where then answer the who? and what? and other questions if appropriate
• could start with why then answer who? and what? etc
• present participle: starting with answering "how"
• begin with a prepositional phrase (no subject or verb) (ex: after two years of discussion...)
• start with a gerund (ing verb) in order to narrate 
• start with time period (temporal clause)
• Feature fact: the most important fact that should be featured in the lead
• vignette lead: storytelling approach to report major issues in order to bring them to a personal/human level. Paragraphs start long then become more traditionally short, newswriting form to bring facts to a close. Used in features.
• Descriptive or background leads: gives details of settings leading up to the story. Could include dialogue.
• start with a question that will hone in a reader's curiosity