Sunday, September 14, 2008

Summary Ledes and Short Reports

Summary Ledes are pretty much a thesis statement as to what the rest of the article will cover. They are used to draw the reader's attention and attempt to answer all of the questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. It is usually only about 20 words in length and strives to provide the most information with the greatest detail in limited words.

The story that I chose to use as my example for my summary lede was about how the Baltimore Ravens/Houston Texans game was postponed this Sunday due to the ever-popular Hurricane Ike. It says:

"The devastation caused by Hurricane Ike forced the NFL to reschedule the Ravens' road opener at Houston for a second time, postponing the game to Nov. 9."

Who: Ravens/Texans
What: Hurricane Ike
Where: Houston
When: Nov 9
Why: Devastation caused by Hurricane Ike
How: Hurricanes are bad ass like that

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/football/ravens/bal-sp.ravens14sep14,0,1288047.story

Short reports are quite similar, but different from summary ledes. For example: They are similar because they both try to provide an overview of what the story is going to entail. But they are different because the lede usually trys to tell you the 5 W's and H, where as the short report wishes to tell you in more detail instead of a brief overview. Here is an example of a short report from the Baltimore Sun:

"Rookie starter Radhames Liz, who entered the game with a 7.75 ERA, pitched eight shutout innings for just his second win in six starts. He was supported by five Orioles home runs, two each from Nick Markakis and Oscar Salazar -- as the Orioles secured a rare easy victory before an announced 18,559."

As you can see this is a little bit longer than the summary lede and gives you more detailed explanation rather than just a broad overview. More words. More details. Short report

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-osgamer0914,0,4748550.story

4 comments:

Carrie Wood said...

Nice post. You managed to explain everything we really needed to know about summary leads and short reports, which was good. I'd only ask for a little more personality to show through in your blog. Right now, it seems that you're only writing for the sake of getting your homework done. Have a little fun with it, this isn't THAT hard.

Katie said...

i think you give really good definitions for both the lede and short report. the post has a nice set up and you do a good job answering the 5 W's and H.

Katelyn said...

I liked how you made your blog short and simple yet it really got the point across, just like a short report. It was a smart idea to add the links on your blog so that as a reader I could see where you were getting this information from. Maybe next time you could post a photo and make it more interesting to look at. For example, you could have shown a photo of the Ravens or even the field in Texas. Overall I think you did a really great job summarizing what ledes and short reports are without making the blog seem boring.

Charnay916 said...

Cool post. I like how you give detail about summary leads and short reports. Cool explanation with the 5 w's. Add some pics spice things up. ;)