I'm really looking forward to meeting Justin Fenton, a police reporter from The Baltimore Sun, tomorrow! All of our guest speakers have been great, and I can't believe we have reached our last one already.
I was reading Fenton's articles for The Baltimore Sun website, and I noticed something.
He seems to not use the same criterion as we do for ledes. For example, this was one article he wrote:
Teenager is charged as adult in attempted robery of officer
Baltimore police have charged a juvenile in the attempted robbery Thursday of an off-duty officer a block from the Southern District police station. Corey L. Johnson, 17, of the 3000 block of Southland Ave. was charged as an adult with first-degree assault, armed robbery and use of a handgun in a violent crime, according to court records.
We have been working on ledes a lot these past few weeks, and Professor Banisky has reminded us to focus on the most important events first. Yet, Fenton starts with "Baltimore police have charged..." In my opinion, it seems that the second sentence should be the lede.
Fenton must have arranged his article the way he did for a reason. So I wonder why it differs from our format.
In addition, the summary of his article is not the first sentence, nor is it the lede, but rather a compilation of the most important facts, as shown by this summary of another article:
Juvenile services head questions GPS monitors
...critically wounded a 5-year-old girl, was wearing one of the monitoring devices at the time of the incident and had not cut it off, as the state agency previously said. Davis was located and arrested two days after the shooting.
This synopsis was a little confusing at first and I had to read the article to fully understand it, so I wonder why he summarized it in this way.
What does everybody think?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think that it does work this way because I think that this led jumps right into the article. By starting off by saying "Baltimore police have charged..." you already get a sense of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have also enjoyed the guest speakers. It was interesting to hear all of the different topics and to see how strongly each speaker felt.
If I remember correctly, though I may not, ledes don't have to necessarily be the first sentence.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, guys!
ReplyDeleteBrooke: According to Professor Banisky the way Fenton writes ledes is different, but it is an "active sentence" so it works, as you said, to "jump right into the article.
Ann: I'm not sure. I assumed that the first sentence would be the lede, but we should ask Professor Banisky.