Find your focus - create your lead

There are six ways of finding the focus of your piece:

• Zoom in on one aspect of your topic that you want to write about.
• Combine two separate ideas to make an unusual slant.
• Take an unusual stance: find an angle that is unique and new and develop it.

• Look for Chalk and Cheese. See if there are any perceived conflicts or contrasts between your topic areas.
• Answer a question in your article.
• Finally, test your chosen focus by seeing if you can write a title based on it.

So, for this topic our focus could be any of the following:

Was it something you ate? 

The growth in the number of adults suddenly developing food allergies.

• Food allergies in children: how to spot them and what to do if you think your child has an allergy.
• Food allergies versus food intolerance: what is the difference between the two?
• Do plants hold the secret of curing food allergies? A look at the research into possible cures being undertaken around the world.
• Are food allergies a western affliction?
• Is cleaning killing our children? The link between the hygiene hypothesis and the increase in food allergies in the western world.
• Food allergies: what teachers/restaurateurs/youth leaders need to know?
• Why teenage years are the deadliest. More children with food allergies die in their teenage years than at any other stage in life.

Now write the lead, or lede

This is the opening sentence that captures the readers’ attention and leads (get it?) them into the rest of your story.

How do I think about creating a lead?

1. What was unique or the most important or unusual thing that happened?
2. Who was involved‑who did it or who said it?

Examples of good ledes

Here is a list of different kinds of ledes. 

After answering these questions, the reporter seeks words and a form that will give shape to the responses by asking three more questions:

3. Is a direct or a delayed lead best? (Does the theme of the story go in the first sentence or somewhere within the first six paragraphs?)
4. Is there a colorful word or dramatic phrase I can work into the lead?
5. What is the subject, and what verb will best move the reader into the story?

Finding the lede

Lede practice 

Lede practice 

Finding problems

For Wednesday do the above exercises, cut and paste your answers into your blog, and think about how you would restructure the lede of your story. Rewrite your lede based on this work.