I was amazed at how a news piece like this about terrorist attacks in Baghdad was presented with powerful verbs and details.
The lede itself incorporates actions like "unleash" and "thwart'." Lede: "Insurgents unleashed attacks across Baghdad on Tuesday night, setting off more than a dozen coordinated bombs in a bloody declaration of their ability to thwart the government’s efforts to secure Iraq’s largest and most important city."
Facts follow in the nutgraf succeeded by a succinct quote from a victim, "It was just storm and fire," with details like he was stirring his tea when he was "hurled" into the air.
In addition to putting forth various sides of the story through victim, civilians, government; the article includes descriptions for a grim news story I seldom find. For instance, ""security was teetering," "jockeying" and "sheen of normalcy." To mention that it was a clear and mild evening and that to word it as the explosions "sent people flying" sort of distracted me from the serious development.
"Insurgents unleashed attacks across Baghdad on Tuesday night, setting off more than a dozen coordinated bombs in a bloody declaration of their ability to thwart the government’s efforts to secure Iraq’s largest and most important city."
ReplyDeleteI find this lede a bit tedious! I agree with you about the descriptive nature of the language. The use of the verbs is very effective; however, the lede is just too long from my POV. I think that splitting this into more sentences and using a shorter/clearer sentence as the lede would be a better way to hook the reader. I just think conciseness is more inviting.