Narrative Leads - Blog #2

For homework the class read about narrative leads as a storytelling technique. The topics were covered in chapters 9 and 10 of "Reporting That Matters."

The most important thing about the narrative lead in public affairs reporting is the "turn," which is the nut graf of the transition into the larger issue or context of the story.

In class today we examined various articles that used narrative leads. The first example was a story written on the employees who clean up litter from LAX. "Their Job: Clear the Airfield" written by Jennifer Oldham does a good job of telling a story that she was able to piece together from her reporting. The turning point in the article occurs when she shifts from telling a story about a wheel on the runway to introducing the employees who are responsible for the making sure the runways are safe and clear of debris.

The second example was an article written by William Lobdell. "Priest and His Son Are Bound by Poverty," starts with a description of a courthouse and doesn't turn until the jump. The larger story here is that the children fathered by Catholic priests can only get very limited help from the legal system.

The third and forth examples follow the same guidelines of starting with a story that has context relevant to the larger issue and then the turning point.

For an in-class exercises we were asked to write a narrative lead about a difficult thing that has happened in our own lives. Here is the lead I worked on in-class:

The bus was leaving promptly at 3 p.m., five students frantically wandered the back alleys of Moscow desperately searching for any familiar sight. The second hand on their watches quickly travel to the top of the face and time they have to reunite with their peers quickly dwindles.
For the first time in their lives, five southern California kids were truly lost outside of suburbia. The manicured lawns, expensive cars and malls were a far comfort replaced by street signs written in an alien language.
The fear of being left behind in an unfamiliar city never entered the minds of the students sent to Europe by their parents for an educational senior trip.
[Turn]
Thousands of high school students under the guidance of educational tour companies, teachers and friends set off every year for a European experience. Parents worry about their students getting mugged or taken advantage of but [hundreds(needs to be research)] of new graduates never return for their senior trips.


That was my attempt at taking a personal experience and making a narrative lead and also trying to connect it to a larger issue.

While interning and working as a general assignment reporter I often used narrative leads to tell news stories. One of my favorite stories to work on was with NOAA group that was doing research on dolphin moralities. The lead sets up the visual and then the turn comes almost instantly with the background of the red tide. Another fun story I wrote was basically a day in the life of a mosquito sprayer.














I would like to invite all readers to review an issue of our campus newspaper, the Graphic, and select one story you believe could have been improved by using narrative storytelling, and explain why? I would love to hear any and all feedback.