Attribution in Leads Attribution tells the reader where

Attribution in Leads Attribution tells the reader where you got your information. Too much attribution can clutter a lead. Too little can get you in trouble. For print and Web stories, you may put the attribution at the beginning or the end of the sentence; for broadcast, attribution must come first. Here are some guidelines about whether you need to use attribution: ■ If you know the information is factual and you witnessed it or have firsthand knowledge that it is true, you may eliminate the attribution. If you received the information by telephone, as in police or fi re stories, attribute it to your source. ■ Whenever you are saying anything accusatory, as in police or political stories, you must attribute the information. ■ You also must attribute the quotes or partial quotes you use in a lead.

• To keep attribution clutter to a minimum, you may give a general reference • to some sources—such as “police said” or “experts say”—if their titles are long. • Th en, as in delayed identifi cation, give the specifi c name and title in the second • reference.

Attribution in facts Clear and undisputed facts In cases where there is undeniable evidence that something is so, you obviously do not have to attribute facts. In the following example, the weather was observable. Who is going to argue? • High winds and torrential rain lashed Port Qasim today, bringing down trees and flooding parts of the city. Neither do you need to attribute if you have witnessed the event yourself, for example while reporting from a court: • The Lahore High Court has sentenced a man to 12 years imprisonment for his involvement in several robbery cases. The court has found the man guilty of the crime. You saw the judge sentence him. You can state it as a fact.

Attribute further down the story There is another category of stories which appear to be true because of the reliability of the sources. These are statements made by people in authority who are in a position to know, such as the police chief telling you about an arrest or the farm manager talking about his cooperative. In such cases, you might not attribute the facts in the intro, but your readers and listeners will still want to know how reliable your information is. So you must attribute the facts further down the story: • A gang of youths ran riot through xyz shopping centre yesterday, smashing car windscreens and shop windows. Police said about 30 youths were involved and all are thought to be from xyz town

• Attributing the information has added extra weight to them. Your readers or listeners can judge how reliable the information is.

Attribution in opinion • There is no alternative to attribution when statements made are opinions. If you do not attribute an opinion to an individual, your audience will assume that it is your own opinion - and there is no excuse for that kind of confusion in a news story.

• Opinion: Speculation about the cause needs to be attributed An 88 -year-old man died in north St. Louis County Monday afternoon, apparently after he started a fire while smoking in bed, authorities said.

• Attributed fact: Attribution for fact is needed because the reporter got the information secondhand (by telephone). The body of a man who had been fatally stabbed was discovered Monday morning in a city trash bin in the Lewis Place neighborhood, police said.

Attribution in accusations • Attribute any accusatory statements to police or other authorities, especially when you are using a suspect’s name. If the person has been charged with a crime, you may state that fact without attribution. The word allegedly can be used when the charges have not been proved, but direct attribution to the police is preferable. Here are some examples:

• No attribution needed: A University of North Florida chemistry major has been charged with building a 35 -pound “megabomb” powerful enough to destroy everything within a radius of 150 yards

Quotes • Whenever you quote someone directly, indirectly or partially, you need to attribute the statement. • Full quotes are difficult in leads and can be awkward. Reading a story that starts with a full quote is like coming into the middle of a conversation; it’s hard to tell the context and meaning of the quote. • Full quotes are also ineffective for broadcast writing. A more effective technique is the use of partial quotes, especially when the speaker says something controversial or dramatic. • Leads may also contain reference quotes, a few words referring to something controversial. Both partial and reference quotes should be backed up later in the story with the full quote or with the context in which the statement was made.

Example for giving a partial quote in the beginning and then giving another quote from the same person. • “I’ve done everything out there, ” 31 -year-old Gilbert Franco told his wife Th ursday. “All that’s left to do is learn the Bible and to die. ” Th e next day, San Jose police say, Franco entered the C&S Market at East Julian and 26 th streets and shot to death Katherine Young Suk Choe, 40, whose family owns the store. Seconds later, 50 yards away, Franco fatally shot himself in the head

Attribution First or Last The rule of thumb in the lead is to put the most important information first. If the attribution is cumbersome and will slow the lead, put it at the end. If it is brief, you can put it first. In broadcast writing, however, you need to put the attribution first. If the attribution is cumbersome, refer to the source broadly as in “a new study” or “a state official, ” and state the full attribution in the next paragraph.

• Attribution last Casual drug use has dropped sharply during the last five years, but the number of addicts using cocaine daily has not changed significantly, the federal government reported yesterday.

• Attribution last as name is cumbersome and not as important as conclusions • In a typical week, about 85 percent of the adult U. S. population uses a newspaper, according to a landmark study of daily newspaper readership released Today. The study was conducted by the Readership Institute of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

• Cluttered Attribution In the example that follows, note how a long attribution at the start of the sentence clutters the lead: Karen Davisson, child protection worker with the Kansas Department of Social Rehabilitation Services district offi ce in Emporia, said Tuesday that only rarely are neglected or abused children removed from their parents’ care and placed in foster homes or put up for adoption

• Uncluttered: Neglected or abused children are rarely removed from their parents’ care and placed in foster homes or put up for adoption, a state social worker said Tuesday. Karen Davisson is a child protection worker with the Kansas Department of Social Rehabilitation Services district offi ce in Emporia.

• One of the most common causes of clutter in leads is too much information about where and when something was said. Put some of this material in the second paragraph. Put the location of the meeting much farther down in the story, or eliminate it altogether unless it is important to the reader.