How to write a lead...

This week in my Comm160 class we learned how to correctly write a lead in a news story. You would assume that it was cake, well at least I did. But, it's not. At all. It's actually really difficult to decide what information deserves to be in the leading sentence of a story. Like always, you must include the WWWWH... You know, Who What Where When and How. Sometimes you aren't provided all of that information, and sometimes you have way too much information! Basically, all you have to remember is to keep it short, sweet and informative! Let everyone know what's going on, but don't bore them in the process! Apparently, a lead should only consist of 35 words, at the most! The shorter and more hard hitting, the better! It sounds awesome when you have a short lead that has you begging for more! As short as a lead could be, it takes a lot of thought and consideration to write an effective piece! Let me tell ya, it's not all that simple.