Summary Leads and Short Reports

Short reports and summary leads share similar ideas. They both share the fact that the first sentence or two of most news stories are to summarize the story quickly.

The only differences between the two are minor, and that is leads are written in past tense and include a time element.

Short reports have different forms that can be expressed to the audience such as crawlers or newspaper briefs like one I found about, "Man fatally shot by police had threatened with rifle replica." The story is fairly short, concise and gives you the most important information. Most times the contributor will continue the story with updates.

In order to construct a solid short report or lead, there are four tips to accomplish that:

1. Be as specific as possible.
2. Avoid backing in.
3. Be concise.
4. Use active voice.

Here's a good example of a summary lead right on the front page of the Sun's website.

Law enforcement officials today arrested nine people after 18 federal raids that netted heroin, automatic weapons and bags of cash. It was the second major takedown in two days. On Wednesday, officers raided a West Baltimore home and seized seven kilos of heroin, $200,000 in cash and automatic weapons.
The information presented is specific, was concise and used active voice, all key in writing a good summary lead. I found myself immediately drawn into the story and wanted to read more. Both stories have the tips that you can use to write a successful short report or summary lead.