SUMMARY LEAD
By Blessedy M. Cervantes, MA.Ed.
Lead is basically the introduction of any news story. It can be just a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, or series of paragraphs (Cruz, 1990). Leads can be categorized as conventional and unconventional. Conventional leads are composed of summary leads and grammatical-beginning leads.
Summary leads answer directly the important questions the readers would ask:
1. What happened?
2. Who is/are involved?
3. When did the event take place?
4. Where did the event take place?
5. Why did the event happen?
6. How did the event happen?
These are questions the summary lead writer has to provide and to structure in not more than 35 words.
Types of Summary Lead: (Cruz, 1990; and Aquino, 1970)
1. WHO Lead
-the type of lead in which the person is most prominent in the news story.
Example: Dr. Yolanda M. Gonzales, Tarlac National High School (TNHS) principal, led the implementation of the Special Program in Journalism (SPJ) in Tarlac Province starting the school year 2013-2014.
2. WHAT Lead
-the type of lead in which the event is more prominent in the news story than the persons involved.
Example: The opening of classes held last June 2, 2014 marked another beginning for the students of Tarlac National High School (TNHS).
3. WHERE Lead
-the type of lead in which the place is more prominent than the event and the persons involved. However, this type of lead is not often used in news writing.
Example: Tarlac National High School served as the avenue of almost 2, 000 freshmen who enrolled last May 2014.
4. WHEN Lead
-the type of lead in which the time or the date is more prominent than the event
and the persons involved. This type of lead is also seldom used in news writing.
Example: June 2, 2014 will be the scheduled opening of classes for all public schools in entire Philippines.
5. WHY Lead
-the type of lead in which the reason why the event happened is the most prominent in the news story.
Example: Because of the increasing number of drop-outs, the Department of Education (DepEd) made a call to all public schools in the country to plan for remediation and appropriate intervention.
6. HOW Lead
- the type of lead in which the process, method, or mode is most prominent
Example: By sponsoring a seminar in teaching visually impaired students, public schools in Tarlac Province managed to put up Special Education (SPED) centers last June 2014.
