Cherubs lead off

Multiple exercises in grabbing readers from the get-go help cherubs perfect their style

By Aisha Hasan

Jessica Jackson, a cherub from Clinton, N.J., sits staring at her paper. Red ink covers the page. The lead that she just wrote has been torn apart.
             
“Leads can be very difficult to write,” Jackson said. “But writing them is an essential skill that every journalist should know.”
           
Cherubs learned how to write different types of leads this summer, tailoring their writing to different types of stories.
Katie Tang, a cherub from East Amherst, N.Y., said that micro leads, which start many feature articles, are the easiest leads to write. In a micro lead, the writer begins with a short story or anecdote from a source. Then, they quote that source directly after the anecdote. Finally, after the quote, the writer includes a nut graf, which is essentially the thesis and some vital facts. The anecdote-quote-nut graf structure of the micro lead makes it easy to use, Tang said.
           
Jazz White, a cherub from New Orleans, said micro leads are more personal because they depict a person to whom the audience can relate.
           
“Micro leads give you the opportunity to take someone else’s story and make it a part of yours,” White said.

The personal connection makes the introduction to the story stronger, she said.
           
But Community Associate Kristin Ellertson said news leads, which start hard news articles, are more standard after a cherub education. In a news lead, a writer includes the who, what, when, where, why and how of a story in the most direct way possible.
           
“Micro leads are harder to pull off,” Ellertson said. “With a micro lead, it’s hard to be very specific and then bring the ‘big picture’ back perfectly.”
           
Though Ellertson favors news leads, many cherubs find writing them difficult.
           
“The news leads are the hardest ones because there are certain details that have to be in the lead or else the lead will fail,” said Samantha Grossman, a cherub from Yardley, Pa.
           
White also said news leads aren’t open to much creativity. They have to be concise and to the point.  
           
A third type of lead, the macro lead, is less common. It begins with the nut graf and then becomes more specific as the story progresses. 
           
Macro leads are harder because there aren’t enough examples in the media to follow, said Sophia Shin, a cherub from Yorba Linda, Calif.
           
“With macro leads it becomes hard not to generalize,” said Lisa Silverman, a cherub from Ellicott City, Md.
           
Regardless of preference, many cherubs felt they learned a lot about leads from the program.
           
“I feel more confident now when I write my leads because I know exactly how to do them,” Tang said.
                       
Nicholas Savidge, a cherub from Berkeley, Calif., said that the cherubs program has given him more confidence in his leads.
           
“Cherubs has made me better in many ways. One example of my improvement has been in my leads,” he said. 
           
In cherubs leads are practiced over and over again, Grossman said.

“The formula for leads is drilled into our heads from the start,” she said.