Leads and stuff.

Leads. They come in all shapes and sizes. And, sometimes, they will differentiate from the typical summary lead. See, for instance, this article here regarding Packers guard T.J. Lang’s recent tweeting spree. Or, perhaps, this one here regarding the effects of the Seahawks victory last night on gamblers. If those to fit your fancy, maybe this one on a soldier charged with manslaughter will do you the trick.

These all utilize different types of leads, all with different levels of success.

Let us start with the solider lead, which does border on a summary lead. I would personally categorize it more on the startling statement lead the book describes, simply because the idea of a solider utilizing a gun to scare away the hiccups seems a little bizarre and out of the ordinary. Overall the lead works really well, because the uniqueness of the incident is really what will draw a person into such a story. I know it certainly engaged me.

As for the T.J. Lang story, it does a solid job of summarizing an entire mood of a story before you even get into it. Overall I would not say it is a very effective lead though, as simply reading it will not bring a reader into the story nor does it really do much to inform you what the whole purpose of the story actually is.

Finally you have the story regarding the Seahawks and its correlation to gambling. This does a good job of letting you know what the story is about, but it falls a little flat on engaging you into wanting to read the rest of the story. So that, of course, is a bit of a problem.

But yea, so those are my thoughts on some leads.