A lead paragraph (sometimes shortened to lead; in the United States sometimes spelled lede) is the opening

paragraph A paragraph () is a self-contained unit of discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea. Though not required by the orthographic conventions of any language with a writing system, paragraphs are a conventional means of organizing ...

of an article, book chapter, or other written work that summarizes its main ideas. Styles vary widely among the different types and genres of publications, from journalistic news-style leads to a more encyclopaedic variety.

Types of leads

* Journalistic leads emphasize grabbing the attention of the reader. In journalism, the failure to mention the most important, interesting or attention-grabbing elements of a story in the first paragraph is sometimes called "burying the lead". Most standard news leads include brief answers to the questions of who, what, why, when, where, and how the key event in the story took place. In newspaper writing, the first paragraph that summarizes or introduces the story is also called the "blurb paragraph", "teaser text" or, in the United Kingdom, the "standfirst". *

Encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

leads tend to define the subject matter as well as emphasize the interesting points of the article. * Features and general articles in

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

s tend to be somewhere between journalistic and encyclopedian in style and often lack a distinct lead paragraph entirely. Leads vary enormously in length, intent, and content depending on the

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

of the piece.

Other introductions

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

, there is the concept of an introductory or summary line or brief paragraph, located immediately above or below the headline, and typographically distinct from the body of the article. This can be referred to with a variety of terms, including: the ''standfirst'' (UK), ''kicker'' (US), ''bank head(line)'', ''deck'', ''dek'', or ''subhead'' (US). A

foreword A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between th ...

is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

or other piece of

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, written by someone other than the author to honour or bring credibility to the work, unlike the

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literature, literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface o ...

, written by the author, which includes the purpose and scope of the work.

Spelling

The term is sometimes spelled "lede". The ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' suggests this arose as an intentional misspelling of "lead", "in order to distinguish the word's use in instructions to printers from printable text", similarly to " hed" for "head(line)" and " dek" for "deck". Some sources suggest the altered spelling was intended to distinguish from the use of "

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

" metal strips of various thickness used to separate lines of type in 20th century typesetting. However, the spelling "lede" first appears in journalism manuals only in the 1980s, well after lead typesetting's heyday. The earliest appearance of "lede" cited by the OED is 1951. According to Grammarist, "lede" is "mainly journalism jargon".

"Bury the lead" expression

The colloquial expression "burying the lead" refers to a writer intentionally hiding the most important aspects of a news story in a later paragraph. This could be done for several reasons: to tease the reader into reading through other information and/or viewing various advertisements, or to hide a politically inconvenient or embarrassing revelation, such as when a theory or position of the writer, publisher, or their benefactors has been revealed to be incorrect.

References

External links