Good and Bad Lead Assignment

Lead 1: 

How annoying is it when the Starbucks barista misspells your name on your drink?

Maybe it's too loud in the cafe or maybe spelling just isn't their forte, you rationalize.

But here's the cold, hard truth, fellow latte drinkers: The baristas are messing with you.

That's the punchline of the viral YouTube video, "Why Starbucks Spells Your Name Wrong," produced by filmmakers Paul Gale and T.J. Misny.

Read the rest of the article here. 

This is an example of a good lead for many reasons. Not only is this article in "USA TODAY" written about my brother. But, it has a lot of great elements to it. The lead is first of all easy to read and conversational. There are no words that I have to look up. And, the first sentence also grabs your attention. After that first line, I am tempted to read more of the article because I like Starbucks and a barista has definitely spelt my name wrong. 

Lead 2: 

 It’s over.

Working with the horses at Suffolk Downs isn’t much of a living, but it’s a good life. Some of the men and women on the backstretch have been working with horses since they were kids.

Read the rest of the article here. 

This is another example of a good lead because it is also easy to read and contains simple language. One thing that makes this lead different from the first one is that it definitely uses the five senses and allows the reader to picture the image of what the writer is describing, which can make a reader want to read more because they like the picture that they are given. It almost makes me relate it in some way, even though I don't own horses. But, most people have a family hobby that they can relate this to like boat races or seeing a baseball game. 

Lead 3: 
Texas executed Lisa Coleman on Wednesday evening. Coleman was the ninth person executed by Texas this year — more than any other state – and the 30th inmate executed in the United States over the same span. 

Read the rest of the article here.

This is an example of a bad lead. There are definitely some good elements such as making it simple and to the point. But, sometimes that is not enough. The way that the sentence is worded, it is making it sound like the entire state of Texas has executed Lisa Coleman. There are some more ways to make this a little clearer. 

Ex:  Officers  at the ______ prison executed Lisa Coleman on Wednesday. 
OR Lisa Coleman's sentence ended when she was injected with a lethal injection by Texas State Prison Officials.