Lead paragraph#Spelling

• Journalistic leads emphasize grabbing the attention of the reader.{{cite book |author=Peha & Lester |title=Be a Writer: Your Guide to the Writing Life!: Proven Tips and Powerful Techniques to Help Young Writers Get Started |page=125 |publisher=Leverage Factory |year=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFMagLZx2vIC&dq=lede+newspaper&pg=PA125|isbn=9780977300006 }} 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".{{cite book |last1=Spark |first1=David |last2=Harris |first2=Geoffrey |title=Practical Newspaper Reporting |date=2010 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=9781473903340 |pages=89, 90, 94, 167}}
• Encyclopedia leads tend to define the subject matter as well as emphasize the interesting points of the article.
• Features and general articles in magazines 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 of the piece.

{{See also|News style#Terms and structure}}

In journalism, 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.{{cite web|title=Standfirst|url=http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/standfirst/|work=Double-Tongued Dictionary|date=15 October 2004|access-date=27 September 2010}} This can be referred to with a variety of terms, including: the standfirst (UK), kicker (US), bank head(line), deck, dek, or subhead (US).{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

A foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature, written by someone other than the author to honour or bring credibility to the work, unlike the preface, written by the author, which includes the purpose and scope of the work.{{cite web | last = Pope| first = Geoff| title = "Foreword" Versus "Forward" | work = Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips| publisher = Macmillan Holdings, LLC| date = 18 November 2010| url = https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/foreword-versus-forward| access-date = 8 December 2019}}

The term is sometimes spelled "lede".{{cite web |url= https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lede |title=Lede |work=Merriam-Webster Online |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc |location=Chicago, IL, US |date=2012|access-date=2012-02-28}} The Oxford English Dictionary suggests this arose as an intentional misspelling of "lead", "in order to distinguish the word's use in instructions to printers from printable text",{{cite web |title=lede, n.2 |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/431803 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |access-date=1 July 2019}} 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" metal strips of various thickness used to separate lines of type in 20th century typesetting.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/harpelstypograph00harp_0 | page=[https://archive.org/details/harpelstypograph00harp_0/page/246 246] | quote=thin strip of metal separating lines of type. |title = Harpel's Typograph, or Book of Specimens| publisher=Self-published |last1 = Harpel|first1 = Oscar|year = 1870}}{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-versus-lead |title=Bury the lede or bury the lead: which is right? |website=Merriam-Webster Online}}{{cite web|url=https://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001128 |title=The Mavens' Word of the Day: lede |author=Carol |work=RandomHouse.com |at="Maven's Word of the Day" blog (defunct as of 2012) |publisher=Random House/Bertelsmann |location=New York |date=November 28, 2000 |access-date=2012-02-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219122848/http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001128 |archive-date=19 February 2012 }}{{tertiary|date=September 2024}} However, the spelling "lede" first appears in journalism manuals only in the 1980s, well after lead typesetting's heyday.{{cite web|url=http://howardowens.com/lede-vs-lead/ |title=lede-vs-lead |author=Owens, Howard |work=HowardOwens.com |publisher=Owens Press |location=New York |date=September 18, 2011 |access-date=2016-06-28 }}{{cite book|author=William Metz|title=Newswriting: from lead to "30"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IxbAAAAMAAJ|year=1977|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=978-0-13-617514-8|page=62}}{{cite book|author=Louis Martin Lyons|title=Reporting the news: selections from Nieman reports|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VuJZAAAAMAAJ|year=1965|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|page=286}}{{cite book|author=Grant Milnor Hyde|title=Newspaper Editing - A Manual for Editors, Copyreaders and Students of Newspaper Desk Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9n381QZO_qYC|date=November 2008|publisher=Read Books|isbn=978-1-4437-2632-0}}{{cite book|author=Carl G. Miller|title=Modern Journalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=deEMAQAAIAAJ|year=1962|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|page=33|isbn=9780030027307}}{{cite book|author=Frank Luther Mott|title=American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years, 1690–1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MithFeTSzTwC|year=2000|publisher=Routledge/Thoemmes Press|isbn=978-0-415-22893-0}}{{citation overkill|date=September 2024}} The earliest appearance of "lede" cited by the OED is 1951. According to Grammarist, "lede" is "mainly journalism jargon".{{cite web |url =https://grammarist.com/usage/lead-lede/|website=Grammarist.com |title=Lead vs. lede|date=28 March 2011 |access-date =8 December 2019}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/bury-the-lede-versus-lead#:~:text=A%20lede%20is%20the%20introductory,story%20within%20other%20distracting%20information.|title=Why Do We 'Bury the Lede?'|work=Merriam-Webster|access-date=May 16, 2024}}

• Abstract (summary)
• Editorial (also known as a "leader" in British English)
• Introduction (writing)
• Inverted pyramid (journalism)
• Nut graph
• Opening sentence

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{Wiktionary-inline|lede}}

Category:Copy editing

Category:Journalism terminology

Category:Literary theory