Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Basic Ledes: One Sentence Is Better Than Two

Most of the time, we'd like to keep ledes to one sentence. This one had two:

Three people were injured when a train struck a car Monday evening in East Lansing. Police say the driver of the car failed to stop at a stop sign.

I would say this lede could have been merged into one sentence by moving word order around so that the supporting fact (why the crash happened) fits into the main point (how it unfolded).

So I would take that second sentence and fold its main point into the narrative of the first sentence, like this:

Three people were injured when a train struck a car that failed to stop at a stop sign Monday evening in East Lansing.

Now, it's one fewer sentence, a few less words and you're still including the what and why in the lede.

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