How to hook your readers with strong leads and nut grafs

The Global Business Journalism program and the National Press Club Journalism Institute are content partners for journalism training materials.

Journalists sometimes research for months and interview dozens of sources just to lose their audience in the first paragraph by failing to capture their attention. Mistakes like jargon, grammatical errors, and lack of clarity can sneak their way in, leading to unclear writing and confused readers. This can be fixed by workshopping leads and nut grafs with punchier language, engaging quotes, and cutting straight to the action.

Journalists editing their own work — as many have to do on tight deadlines — should give themselves grace, according to Beth Francesco, executive director of the National Press Club Journalism Institute.

“There’s no perfect, one way to edit,” Francesco said. “There’s no such thing as perfection in our field — it’s excellence — and if you strive for that, you’re going to knock it out of the park.”

Francesco and NPCJI Training Manager Elliot C. Williams shared several tips during a writing and self-editing workshop on May 2. Here are some key takeaways: 

Catch the reader’s eye

• Use provocative leads that center on an interesting fact or quote that will entice the reader to continue the story.

• Get straight to the point. The average attention span is eight seconds, and the average person can only comprehend three words during that time, so be short and direct.

• Ask yourself: “Do I have enough material to support this lead? If not, do more reporting or rewrite the lead.

• Explain the story like you would to your mom by highlighting only the most key points of the story.

Streamline the nut graf

• Ask yourself: “Who is being affected?” and “Who am I writing for?” This is what your nut graf should answer.

• Provide the context, significance, and focus of the story.

• Find the essence of your story (and make it concise). Try to boil the story down into six words to be more succinct — even if you expand on this sentence as you write, this six-word line will help guide your story.

Do a final review

• Set aside 10 minutes after writing to focus and proofread. 

• Try not to separate subjects and verbs with too many clauses because that can lead to confusing or inflated writing.

• Stay clear of preposition abuse: Using just a few helps establish the relationship between ideas, but too many lead to confusion and lack of clarity.

Lastly, be patient with yourself; improving your writing takes time. “Sometimes done is better than perfect,” Francesco concluded at the end of the session.

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If you would like to purchase the recording of this session, email institute@press.org.

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This tipsheet originally appeared on the website of the National Press Club Journalism Institute. You can subscribe to "The Latest," the NPCJI's newsletter, and view its archives here.