One-word ledes and question ledes are anathema to journalists (except when you don't have time to come up with anything better), but in this case, it's appropriate.
Why add one more howl to the Babel already present? Why now, when blogging seems to have peaked? Why now, when I have three other jobs to do in the course of a day?
Maybe "Why?" isn't the right question. Maybe the better question is "WTF?" (Although that's assuredly not an MSM lede...)
Fortunately, there are a couple of legitimate answers to either question. First, I teach a class on critical and editorial writing. The model has always been newspaper (and, to a lesser degree, magazine) writing, but for obvious reasons, that model may be drying up. So this fall, I'm rechristening the course "Opinion Writing and Blogging" and making this activity a required part of the course. Soon you will see the blogs of my students listed under the "Sites That Are Far More Interesting" head -- and I'm pretty sure that most of them will fit the billing.
Second, like many who come to this on the novice level, I'm curious as to what this new form will do for my writing. Those who have tried it seriously as a writing exercise have found it liberating, even exhilarating. I'm more skeptical -- I have a feeling I may fall back into my old reviewer voice, which is part of the reason I gave up reviewing. But if this can take what was good about that voice and give it, if not a new range, a new timbre, then I'm willing to see where it goes.
Good luck. I look forward to participating in what today constitutes reasonable online discourse (taking bits of what you say out of context and then belittling you savagely).
ReplyDeletePurplemiller said: "One-word ledes ... are .. appropriate ... in ... editorial writing."
And you call yourself a journalism professor? You, sir, are responsible for the sorry state of affairs in which the newspaper industry finds itself.
Matt Merritt