Lead 3

 

Feature writing tells the reader a story. It has a beginning (lead), middle, and end. It uses quotes liberally and allows the reader to see the story through detailed description and vivid writing. A lead story is the opening sentence of a story, it must grab and hold the reader's attention by using specific words. A lead must catch the spirit of the story and create a proper tone for it. For example, it can be serious, ironic, or even melancholic. There are various types of leads such as narrative, descriptive, direct quote, starling statement, compare and contrast and twist. 

A lead should grab the readers' attention, be specific to the story, not include cliches unless necessary, be in third person, be longer than one sentence, and fit the mood or tone of the story.

Feature Example:

The police in this municipality received a call at 3:45 p.m. yesterday afternoon. A woman shouted at the sergeant who answered the telephone. She said: "My son's been beaten. His teacher whipped him this afternoon, and he's all red where she paddled him. Can teachers do that? That's assault and battery, and I want her arrested." Two police officers were sent to the home. They questioned the boy, who is 9 years old. At his mother's insistence, the police officers also inspected the boy's reported injuries. They reported: "We couldn't tell that the boy had been paddled. His fanny didn't look red to us, but we did notice that his pants legs were wet and muddy. As we talked, it became obvious that the boy was lying. He finally admitted that he had stopped to play on the way home from school, forgot the time, and got home late. He told his mother that the teacher had spanked him and kept him after school. His mother was there with us and heard the whole story. She said she'd take of the situation, and we're quite certain that she will, as she was very embarrassed. In fact, we could hear her giving the kid a real paddling as we left—and a hard one."