GIVE IT TO ME QUICK & EASY

Michael Nagle/Getty Images
The headquarters of Lehman Brothers in New York on Sunday.

As journalist we must find the core of the story. Report it as briefly as possible with as much content as possible. This almost sounds impossible but its not.

Two ways to write quick and easy for readers to comprehend are the short report and summary lead techniques. I found one example of each in the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times online.

“Bride-to-be dies when tractor-trailer hits limousine.” By JAMES DREW, Baltimore Sun. “About 4:30 a.m. yesterday, a tractor-trailer collided with the limousine in the 4000 block of E. Monument St., killing Sunshine Royston”. This summary lead was found in the Baltimore city news feed as the top news story. This sentence is written in the past tense and includes a time element. It is specific, concise, did not have an introductory before the subject, and uses an active voice. These are the essentials needed to grab a reader.

“Lehman Will File Bankruptcy; Merrill to Be Sold”
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN , NY times, 33 minutes after posted.
“In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street history, Lehman Brothers said it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, while Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for about $50 billion“. This is a story published on Sunday, September 15, and continuously updated with bulletins, such as the one above as the story continued to unfold. A bulletin is a form of a short report with a sense of urgency. In addition to the story becoming available to me 33minutes after the author posted it is enough urgency to me.

The shortest written stories can have the most impact.