A “lead” is the beginning (and, William Zinsser argues, the most important part) of a nonfiction article. An effective lead can be of any length, as long as it attracts the reader’s attention.
Lead Quotes in On Writing Well
The On Writing Well quotes below are all either spoken by Lead or refer to Lead. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 9
Quotes
Therefore your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. It must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question. Anything will do, as long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve.
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Chapter 23
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What struck me most powerfully when I got to Timbuktu was that the streets were of sand. I suddenly realized that sand is very different from dirt. Every town starts with dirt streets that eventually get paved as the inhabitants prosper and subdue their environment. But sand represents defeat. A city with streets of sand is a city at the edge.
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Lead Term Timeline in On Writing Well
The timeline below shows where the term Lead appears in On Writing Well. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
The most important part of an article is the lead, or the very beginning, which has to catch the reader’s attention. The lead can be...
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Zinsser compares a few different effective leads. He starts with one of his own, from an article about the poultry industry’s campaign...
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Zinsser notes that his best leads often come from random facts, so he advises writers to over-research, as long as it...
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Zinsser looks at two more leads. In her article about Howard Hughes’s defunct L.A. office, Joan Didion uses details about Hollywood’s...
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...comment about Coolidge’s utterly boring presidency. Often, writers can end with a reference to the lead or a funny quote. For instance, Zinsser closed an article about Woody Allen with Allen’s...
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Chapter 23: A Writer’s Decisions
An article’s lead has to grab and hold the reader’s attention while giving context about the story. Zinsser...
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...upwards of an hour, but the time investment was worth it. Zinsser ends his six-paragraph lead with an asterisk, which shows the reader that he’s starting a new section.
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