A summary lede is considered the first sentence of a news story. It should contain some answers to the "5 W's," be concise, consist of 30 words or less and be written in active voice (subject verb object). A summary lede is a summary of the entire story and gives away the ending of the article. It should give the reader the main idea of the news story.
A feature lead typically appeals to an individual's emotions. These ledes tend to be more descriptive because their goal is to hook the reader and make them interested to read the rest of the article. There are four main types of feature ledes: descriptive, anecdotal, narrative or mystery.
Examples of a summary ledes:
More than three million doses of swine flu vacine will be available by the first week of October, a little earlier than had been anticipated, federal health officials announced Friday.
The president of Athletics South Africa has admitted that he lied about gender tests on runner Caster Semenya before her gold-medal win at the World Athletics Championships last month.
Examples of feature ledes:
On the last episode of reality... Jon left Kate and his eight children and took up with the party girl Hailey. Audrina got a restraining order against an alleged stalker. NeNe got into an argument with Kim during a photo shoot. And Rachel was attacked -- yet again -- by one of the city tabloids.
We all know we're supposed to eat healthy portions. So why is it that a rough day at the office or even just the smell of chocolate-ship cookies can cause us to throw our best intentions out the window?
