I was taught on campus, by very great lecturers, what they were taught by other great masters many years before us, that the first paragraph of a news story, also known as the lead, is like a micro-mini skirt. It is short enough to arrest attention, trigger curiosity and force the guy to say hi, but long enough to cover the vital part of a woman’s wonderful body and keep her dignity in place. And as a journalist, I learnt to make the lead catchy, interesting but factual. You see, when people ask me, Simon, I like what you write, they fail to realise that the deeper the foundation, the taller the building. But I am not here to boast, I want to talk about editorial writing. It’s one of the most fascinating pieces a journalist can write. But there are many bad ones out there these days from virtually all the big newspapers in town. Each time I read them, I remember Dr. Dele Omojuyigbe of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in Lagos. As he was about teaching us editorial writing, he paused for a moment as if drawing wisdom from his Yoruba ancestors, and said ‘editorial writing is serious business. It should be gleeful, colourful and soulful. Generally, it has four parts: The introduction, the background, the analysis, the conclusion in the form of position.” For instance, if you are to write an editorial on armed robberies in Shangisha, it will go a little bit like this: 1- Introduction: The spate of armed robberies in Shangisha area of Lagos over the past seven days is, to say the least, alarming and must stop. 2 -Background: Over the past one week alone, 23 houses were burgled, 10 cars were snatched at gunpoint and two persons (God forbid) were killed, leaving behind two young women to cater for their eight children 3- Analysis: The robberies increased immediately after the police post in the area was relocated and patrol vehicles were all taken away. 4. Conclusion- Things cannot remain this way. The police post and patrol vans should be brought back and community policing should be encouraged by the new police boss when the current one is quickly redeployed. The point is, like the lead, it should be very catchy, not too long, not too short, but contain all the facts. This is how editorials generally are. But these days, up is down, and down is up.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 15:25:25 +0000