Ledes, inverted pyramids and attribution

1. The Role of the Student Press
It’s a training ground for you, a
laboratory for cutting-edge
journalism.
- Reflect your community: what are college students
talking about? Music, sex, stress, the job market…
- Focus on news that is local and useful for your campus
readers.
- Exploit the advantage: how is the administration
spending money? Who gets a free car?
- Make hearing your readers a priority. Invite them to tell
you.
- Not just student life but concerns of university
employees, faculty, administrators and staff
- The student paper can be a unifying force, an outlet of
frustrations, excitements and passions.

2. Watchdogs
The student newspaper is the only
institution able to investigate and report
matters of corruption and
scandal, questionable research, misuse of
state funds, employing sexual predators.
- Using social media, you can mobilize a
community in a matter of minutes.

3. Challenges
-Lack of respect: it can be tough to get
readers and sources to take you seriously.
Administrators and faculty can fail to
give students due diligence.
-Conflicts of interest of covering the
community in which you live: health
violations at the dining hall, tenure battle of
your favorite English professor.
Sometimes, you can recuse yourself from a
story
-Inexperience: mistakes are on display for
the whole campus
-Interference: Administrators often
challenge student newspapers that stir up
trouble or embarrass the campus

4. Get Help
- Society of Professional Journalists
- Student Press Law Center
- Associated Collegiate Press
- College Media Advisers
- Professional Photographers of America
- National Press Photographers Association

5. News Writing
Keep it simple: The inverted pyramid
-LEDE: Who/what/where/when/why/how
- Supporting details for lede
- Lead quote
- Background/reaction
- Least important details
A technique that presents the information in descending order of importance
– from most important summary of news followed by less important details

6. News Writing
-The 5W and 1 H are generally answered in the first two or
three paragraphs.
1. A lede hooks the reader and captures the essence of the
story
2. A second paragraph backs up the lede and often explains
the impact of the story, answers the questions not
addressed in the lede.
3. A lead quote that augments the lede, often the strongest
quote of the story and adds a human dimension.
4. A nut graph – paragraph or two that provides context and
tells the readers why they should care
The rest of the story includes reaction and background, more quotes and explanation
in descending order of importance.
Online readers often just scan the headline and the first couple of paragraphs of the
story so, even if they don’t read it all the way, they get the fist of it in inverted pyramid
format.

7. Ledes
- Are crucial. The goal of the lede is to:
1. Report the essential details of the story
2. Lure the reader into the story
3. Make the reader want to read more
Ledesare divided into two categories: hard and soft
Hard: summary lede or direct lede delivers the news immediately
Feature or soft: more of a storytelling approach, may start with an anecdote
or a scene that draws a picture for the reader and may be several paragraphs
long. IMPORTANT: a nut graph must follow the feature lede because readers
don’t always know from the start where the story is heading. The nut
graph, or focus graph, explains the point of the story and why readers should
care. It should come early, usually in the third to fifth paragraph.

8. Tips for Writing Ledes
-Hard news ledes are generally short: one or two sentences at most
-Let the facts speak for the themselves
-Ledes generally only contain the most relevant details and should be free
of clutter – unimportant addresses, ages, times
-Leave names out of a news lede unless the person is familiar to your
readers
-Generally put attribution at the end
-Avoid cliches like movies, song titles
-Avoid passive “to be” verbs
-Avoid “When asked” (All quotes are new paragraphs)

9. Elements to include
-Numbers: stats, dimensions, percentages or population figures
-History or background: how long has this been happening? What
happened in the past?
-Financial figures: how much will this cost? What are the financial
implications of this policy or program?
-Reaction: how are different types of people reacting to this news? Include
a variety of perspectives: students, faculty, staff, opponents and
proponents, winners and losers
-Chronology: lay out a sequence of events. What happened first? Next?
What is expected to happen?
-Description: what do the places, people, things look like? Use senses to
help you describe what you’re reporting
-Impact: What effect will this news have on people?
TIP: Try to get as many points of view as you can and then present a fair
and balanced account of what you’ve found.
-A clear-cut conclusion is NOT ALWAYS relevant

10. Attribution
No footnotes! You must use attribution.
ALL QUOTATIONS, OPINIONS and STATEMENTS of fact should be attributed.
Factual attribution: The crash occurred at 5:40 p.m., according to…
Direct quotes: “This is an important time,” said Mary Smith, president of…
Indirect quotes/paraphrase: Assistant Coach Jim Jones said the
quarterback is the best player since Tim Tebow.
Quotes
Good quotes are vivid, colorful or personal, expresses strong
opinion, conveys drama
THE RULE: If the source says it better than you can say it, use the quote.
If you can say it better, more clearly, precisely or powerfully, then
paraphrase.
The lead quote is the strongest quote you have and often
sums up the theme or main points of the story.

11. Quotes
-Punctuate properly: Start the quote with open quotation marks and close
with close quotation marks. Commas and periods ALWAYS go inside the
quote marks. A question mark goes within the quote marks if it’s part of
the quoted material. Otherwise, it goes outside.
-Attribute: identify the speaker, not just by name but by title or role the
person plays in the story. Put attribution high in the quote, usually after
the first sentence.
-Make a transition between speakers each time you quote a new source.
Start a new paragraph by introducing the speaker first and then running
their quote.
-Only use quotes you’ve heard. DO NOT lift quotes.
-Clean up quotes – a little! Use ellipsis … to represent deleted material and
put any addition words in brackets [ ]. However, if a quote needs too much
correcting, don’t use it all.
-Use said. No one notices the repetition and everything else is
editorializing: stated, remarked, declared, etc.
-Keep quotes tight, short and snappy.
-Save a catchy quote for the ending for a kicker, an ending that finishes the
story with a climax, surprise or punch line.