Every news story begins with a lead (pronounced LEED), so learning to write a good lead is the first step in learning to write a good story. Journalists use many different styles of leads, depending on the situation. But most media writing students begin by learning the simplest and most common style: the straight news lead. Below are six rules for writing good straight news leads.

Rule #1: A straight news lead should be a single paragraph consisting of a single sentence, should contain no more than 30 words, and should summarize, at minimum, the most newsworthy "what," "where" and "when" of the story.

• Example: "Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning."
• The lead is a single-sentence paragraph. Note, please, that a lead should be written in ordinary English, not the clipped phrasing reserved for headlines like "Main Street home destroyed in early morning fire." Headlines, which appear in large print above the stories they introduce, are written that way to conserve space.
• It contains 10 words -- far fewer than the 30-word limit. Notice that the word count includes even little words like "a" and "on."
• It summarizes the main "what" of the story, which is that fire destroyed a house.
• It also provides the "where" of the story with the phrase "on Main Street."
• Finally, it gives the "when" of the story with the phrase "early Monday morning."
• Important note: There are some mental gymnastics involved in correctly conveying the "when" of a newspaper story. Suppose, for example, that today is Monday, and the fire happened this morning. You might be tempted to write the lead like this: "Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early this morning." And doing so would be just fine if your lead were going to be published that same day. But most newspapers get printed overnight and distributed the following morning. That means that a reader who picks up the paper Tuesday morning and reads that the fire occurred "this morning" will inaccurately assume that "this morning" means "Tuesday morning." To avoid this problem, you have to write the lead - and, indeed, the entire story - so that it will be accurate when read during the reader's time frame: "Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning."

• Example: "Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning."
• The verb "destroyed" expresses the main "what" of the story.
• "Destroyed" is the lead's second word -- a position that puts "destroyed" well in front of "Street," the lead's seventh word.
• Again, notice that the word count includes even little words like "a" and "on."
• There are no other verbs in front of "destroyed," so "destroyed" is the lead's first verb.
• Following this rule will force you to quickly tell readers what the story is about.

• A verb is active voice if the verb's subject did, is doing, or will do something.
• Example: "Fire destroyed a house on Main Street early Monday morning."
• "Destroyed" is the verb.
• "Fire" is the verb's subject.
• "Fire" did something. It destroyed.
• A verb is passive voice if the verb's subject had, is having, or will have something done to it.
• Example: "A house was destroyed by fire on Main Street early Monday morning."
• "Was" is the verb.
• "House" is the verb's subject.
• "House" had something done to it. It "was destroyed."

• First example: "An elderly Murfreesboro man died Monday when an early morning fire raged through his Main Street home."
• The "who" is "an elderly Murfreesboro man."
• In this case, the "who" probably isn't someone whose name readers would recognize.
• As a result, the "who" angle of the lead focuses on what things about the "who" might make the "who" important to the reader. In this case, it's the fact that the man was older and lived in Murfreesboro. That's called writing a "blind lead." The man's name will be given later in the story.
• Second example: "Murfreesboro Mayor Joe Smith died Monday when an early morning fire raged through his Main Street home."
• Smith is the local mayor, and most readers probably will recognize his name.
• As a result, the lead gives his name.

• Example: "An elderly Murfreesboro man died early Monday morning when fire sparked by faulty wiring raged through his Main Street home."
• "... fire ... raged through his Main Street home ..." explains why the man died.
• "... sparked by faulty wiring ..." explains how the blaze began.

• Example: "Faulty wiring most likely sparked the blaze that claimed the life of an elderly Murfreesboro man last week, the city's arson investigator concluded Monday."
• Attribution is simply a reference indicating the source of some bit of information.
• In this case, the attribution is the phrase, "the city's arson investigator concluded Monday."
• Generally, attribute assertions that represent anything other than objective, indisputable information.
• Here, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the man is dead, that his house was destroyed, that it all happened early Monday morning, and that he house was on Main Street.
• But the arson investigator's assertion that faulty wiring caused the blaze represents the investigator's opinion (based, of course, upon his training and expertise - but an opinion nonetheless). Therefore, the assertion needs to be attributed to the investigator so readers can decide how credible the assertion is.