Paul Mundy www.mamud.com

The lead

The first few paragraphs that lead the reader into the story

The lead

Readers look first at: The headline or title The pictures The lead

and maybe, if you’re lucky…

the rest of the story

What does the lead do?

Grabs attention Starts flow that propels the story forward Tells something about the subject of the story Shows the significance of the story Answers “So what?” Shows what kind of story it is Establishes pace and tone of story Establishes writer’s voice and authority

Eight types of leads

Straight lead Scene lead Anecdote lead Point-of-view lead

Quote lead List lead Direct address lead Question lead

Straight lead

In Tanzania, like in many other African countries, coffee used to be closely controlled by the government. The coffee market was regulated through a national commodity board and through the cooperative unions – groupings of rural cooperative societies.

The rural coops were not really grassroots organizations where farmers joined forces, but acted merely as agents of the government-controlled unions. They received directives from the union they were a member of, and from government officials. Their main tasks were distributing subsidized inputs and to assemble coffee grown by their members to sell to commodity boards, at prices fixed by the government. They were not allowed to trade with private traders, and private traders were not allowed to buy from farmers, the rural coops or the unions. Multinational companies were required to apply for a license as a coffee exporter and were allowed to buy from only one source – Moshi Coffee Auction – an auction centre in the northern Tanzania.

Introduces the story in straightforward way

Straight lead

This is a story of how a technically bankrupt microfinance institution managed to get back in business by restructuring its portfolio towards value chain finance.

Sartawi Foundation is a Bolivian microfinance institution focusing on small-scale farmers and rural micro-entrepreneurs. Established in 1990, by 2002 Sartawi had developed a portfolio of $5 million, of which 60% was for rural clients. Its main service was providing short-term loans for small farmers. But many borrowers defaulted – an average of 30%, and in 2003 half of them failed to repay. From 2002 onwards, Sartawi had a negative balance sheet (it had more debts than assets), and in 2005 it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Scene lead

The farmers of Malakisi Division watched their neighbours across the border in Uganda with some envy. The Ugandans seemed to be making money growing tomatoes. So when the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture’s National Agricultural and Livestock Extension Programme started a project to promote tomato growing in the area in 2005, the farmers of Malakisi were keen to join in. They learned how to grow the vegetables, acquired seed and other inputs, and started growing tomatoes.

A successful project? Yes and no. Tomatoes were well suited to the soils and climate of the area, and the farmers found they were good at growing them. Soon there were piles of tomatoes in Malakisi. But the project had not given the farmers the skills they needed to market their produce. The farmers quickly learned the value of a rotting tomato – nothing.

Paints picture of scene

Scene leadEvery morning, a queue forms in the dusty street outside the village house. Men, women, small children and young people all wait patiently for their turn. Some chat with their friends; others are impatient to get away to school or household chores.

A doctor’s surgery? No: the queue is moving too quickly for that. And everyone is carrying a jar or bottle of milk. One man has a big metal bucket, carefully covered to prevent the dust from getting in and the contents from spilling. A child is clutching a bottle that cannot contain more than half a litre.

Anecdote lead

Tells a story about someone or something

A crowd of angry young Ghanaian farmers surrounded the lorries at Navrongo – 10 km from the Burkina Faso border. The lorries were on their way north to fetch tomatoes destined for Accra, the Ghanaian capital, and other cities in the south.

The farmers deflated the tyres of two lorries that tried to inch their way through the crowd, and attacked the drivers, women traders and their helpers who were aboard. A group of young men employed by the traders heard of the dispute, and gathered to defend their bosses. A tense standoff ensued.

Point-of-view lead

Gives point of view of person or organization

Tsegaye Abebe had a problem. The founder and owner of Ethioflora, an Ethiopian vegetable marketer, wanted to expand the firm’s exports of green beans to Europe. But he had no more land to grow beans on. How could he expand production?

Point-of-view lead

Soybeans grow well in northern Ghana. There is a lot of demand for them, too. So are smallholder farmers in the three northern regions of Ghana eager to grow the crop? Not unless they can solve their marketing problems.

So smallholder farmers in the three northern regions of Ghana are eager to grow the crop? Not unless they can solve the marketing problems. They see little point in growing lots of the beans unless they can make money. And until recently, getting a decent price for their soybeans has been tricky.

Quote lead

Starts with a quote

“Traders are nothing but a group of manipulative, opportunistic, money-hungry swindlers who rip farmers off!”

That is what livestock farmers in Mbire District used to think. The traders would come to their villages to buy their animals – at what the farmers thought were cheap prices. And they heard from relatives that the traders were making a fortune selling the animals in town.

Quote lead

“It does not matter if we have no grazing land to rear cows”, says Abba Sherab Abba Warri. “After all, soybean is our cow that never stops giving milk.”

Abba Sherab is one of many farmers in Jimma zone, in Oromia state in southwestern Ethiopia, who have recently taken up growing soybeans. He sells the soybeans to the marketing organization he belongs to, which takes them to a factory nearby which produces soy milk, a nutritious substitute for cow’s milk.

List lead

Uses a list to introduce the subject

Cabbages and carrots, beans and bananas, plantains and papayas, oranges and onions… from avocadoes to yams, the range of fruits and vegetables in the district markets in Accra is overwhelming.

Direct address lead

Talks directly to you, the reader

Pick up a packet of potato crisps in a Peruvian supermarket, and chances are that it will have a “Lays” logo on it. “Lays” is a brand of Snacks America Latina Perú SRL, part of Pepsico, a big American multinational. Snacks is the market leader: it supplies 85% of the Peruvian market for crisps.

Direct address lead

You think that exporting mangoes is just a question of filling a container with fruit and shipping it off to Europe? Then think again. A mango is a very delicate fruit. It must arrive in European supermarkets in perfect condition, with a shelf-life of at least 2 weeks before it lands on a customer’s breakfast table.

Question lead

Starts with a question to the reader

“Is there anything we can grow that the elephants will not eat?”

The farmers in Laikipia West district were fed up with wild animals eating their maize and beans.

Question lead

Weddings in India tend to be massive undertakings. Hundreds of well-wishers come to present gifts to the bride and groom. Naturally, all the guests must be fed. Behind the scenes, a small army of cooks prepares platter upon platter of food. But how to serve it? Few households or hotels have enough crockery to serve so many people at one time.

Leads – some dos and don’ts

Don’t Use complicated leads

Make things easy for your reader!

Make the lead too long Use over-general leads

“The project has many sustainable agriculture initiatives”

Overuse one type of lead

Do Make the lead interesting!

If you don’t, the reader won’t read on Make sure the lead is suitable

It must match the story content Refer back to the lead during the story

Perhaps at the end Vary the leads you use

How about this lead?

There is no greater challenge in Zimbabwe today than stemming the tide of orphans, while guaranteeing existing Orphans and Vulnerable Children [OVC] are properly supported in education, health, nutrition and protection of children from abuse.

How about this lead?

Charles Rugambage, his wife, Josephine, and their four children are a cattle-keeping family in Kamonyi District of Rwanda. They used to be part of the 90% of households in Rwanda that depend on fuelwood to meet their energy needs. For many of these households it has become increasingly difficult to satisfy daily energy requirements. The burden on women and children increases, as they are the ones who must gather firewood and cook in a smoky environment. ‘We were one of the first families to participate in the National Domestic Biogas Programme and had a biogas plant installed in our homestead. It changed our lives tremendously,’ says Charles.