Leads to Read

"THE rebel fighters, lolling sleepily in a former police station, are suddenly interrupted by a rocket that crashes into the roof over an unoccupied room. Although the Syrian regime has ceded direct control over this and much of the rest of Idleb, a rural province in the north-west, shelling and other attacks from a distance are a frequent annoyance—and worse. As night falls, behind closed doors, a woman sits guessing which village the distant thud of falling shells is coming from tonight. Her children, meanwhile, are busy describing in detail how the mother of a friend had her limbs torn off by a rocket."

This article demonstrates the use of a "scene-setter lead".  It vividly describes a scene, placing the reader at the heart of the action right off the bat.  I really like this type of lead because a) I think it seems fun to write and b) It's like reading a story as opposed to being told what happened.  I can picture it in my head even before I know what exactly happened.  I feel like this type of lead works best for stories about natural disasters because the reader wants to picture the destruction caused and see what occurred instead of just being told "a hurricane happened yesterday".

"IN THE north-eastern town of Yonezawa, Yoichi Funayama, owner of a photo-printing firm, has pinned signs on his shop window decrying both the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as past their sell-by dates. The cheery shopkeeper likens the parties to parents standing outside their burning house arguing about what to do. Only one proposal doing the rounds has Mr Funayama’s support: slashing the 480 lower-house seats in the Diet (parliament) by half."

This lead shows how to begin a news story with an anecdote.  The lead begins with the story of the shop keeper before delving in to the real story here: Japanese politics.  I feel like this type of lead works best for stories where the reader needs to connect with a person in the story.  For example, in this story, not all readers may be able to understand the issues posed on a large scale but when they effect small business owners and local shop owners, readers are more likely to relate to the story on a personal level.

"FOR many Americans the killing of Christopher Stevens, their ambassador to Libya, this week crystallised everything they have come to expect from the Arab world. In a country where the West only last year helped depose a murderous tyrant, a Salafist mob attacked the American consulate in Benghazi, killing Mr Stevens and three colleagues. The trigger for this murder, the riots in neighbouring Egypt and the storming of the American embassy in Yemen? A tacky amateur video about the Prophet Muhammad that the Obama administration had already condemned. Why on earth, many Americans are asking, should the United States try to police a region, when all it gets in return is mindless abuse, blame for things it cannot control, and mob violence?"

I found this lead very effective because it quickly summarized a story I already knew while also reminding me of the "shock factor" of this story.  It's pretty shocking and awful that Christopher Stevens and three colleagues were killed but reminding me of that in the lead sure grabs my attention.  Also, this lead poses a question that many people have been wondering about.  I thought this was very clever because it simultaneously makes the reader wonder about this question while also making the reader want to read more to confirm or deny their answer to this question.