d.=--The lead itself is always paragraphed separately. Usually
it consists of a single sentence, although it is much better to break it
into two than to make the sentence too long and complicated. As we have
said before, the lead must not only tell the most interesting fact or
incident in the story, but it must answer the natural questions that the
reader immediately asks about this matter; i.e., when, where, what, why,
who, and how. These questions must be answered briefly and concisely in
their order of importance, and the most unusual answer or the most
striking part of the story must precede all the rest. Beyond the answers
to these questions there is no space for details in the lead. Every word
must have a purpose and a necessary purpose or it must be cut out and
relegated to the body of the story. No space should be given to
explanations of minor importance. State the content of the news story
as completely, accurately, and concisely as possible so that the reader
may know just what happened, when it happened, where, to whom, and
perhaps how and why it happened. Then begin a new paragraph and start
the body of the story.

Many editors require that the lead consist of one long sentence and yet
it must be grammatical. Many reporters forget all about English grammar
in their attempt to crowd everything they know into one sentence. But
mere quantity does not make the lead good; it must be grammatical and
easy to read. The verb must have a grammatical subject and, if it is an
_active_ verb, it must have a grammatical predicate. Clauses and
modifiers must be attached in a way that cannot be overlooked. Dangling
participles and absolute constructions should be shunned. All of the
modifying clauses must be gathered together either before or after the
principal clause. Everything must be compact and logical. Many papers
disregard this matter, as will be seen in some of the extracts quoted in
this book, but the best papers do not.

Every lead should be so constructed that it may stand alone and be
self-sufficient. Never should a reporter trust to headlines to enlighten
his readers upon the meaning of the lead--the exact reverse of this
must be true. The story is written first and the headlines are written
from the facts contained in the lead--and usually by another man. In
writing the lead disregard the existence of headlines, for many readers
do not read them at all. This is but an amplification of the old rule of
composi