NEWSPAPERS
Finding out what happened
The lead refers to the first (and sometimes the second paragraph of a news story. The lead is usually one sentence packed with information which expands on the story's main point headline. "Something happened", and that 'something' will generally be found in the subject and main verb of the lead sentence, so a little grammar here would be useful.
The grammar of the lead sentence
First we will focus on the single-sentence leads because they are by far the most common. The majority of the leads are simple subject-verb-object
Thousands of Arab students are learning to read the English newspapers.
Thousands of Arab students, most of whom attend some of the country's best-known universities, are learning to read English newspapers.
In a ground-breaking programme sponsored by the Arabnews., thousands of Arab students, most of whom attend some of the country's best-known universities, are learning to read the newspapers
To understand each of the above, you must be able to find the subject and main verb. The above examples illustrate three of the most common positions for these key elements. In the first, the subject and verb are together at the beginning of the sentence. In the second, the subject and the verb are separated. In the third, the sentence opens with an introductory phase, delaying the appearance of the subject and the verb.
