Headlines, Leads, and

The Smart Grid

A single period presentation

A headline tells the main idea of the story.

A good headline attracts the reader’s attention.

A good headline makes the reader WANT to read on.

Scorching temperatures return to wilting East

The Largest Smart Grid in U.S. Gets Funding

U.S. Electricity Blackouts Syrocketing

Scorching is a vivid adjective and creates an image in your mind

Largest… in U.S. How large is large? LARGE is a word that catches our imagination.

Funding always means money and brings an image to mind.

The Largest Smart Grid in U.S. Gets Funding

Blackouts – Always an attention grabbing word, im

Skyrocketing is a vivid verb. It is more exciting than the verb increasing, for example)

Headlines grab our interest and point us in the direction of the first paragraph of the story.

at several headlines and see if we can match them to their corresponding lead paragraph.

Are you ready?

(What is a lead? A lead is the opening paragraph of a news story.)

A. Scorching temperatures return to wilting East

B. Largest Smart Grid in U.S. Gets Funding

C. U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing

PHILADELPHIA – The eastern U.S. cooked for another day Wednesday as unrelenting heat promised to push thermometers past 100 degrees in urban "heat islands," buckled roads, warped rails and pushed utilities toward the limit of the electrical grid's capacity…Scattered power outages affected customers up and down the coast and usage approached record levels. In the Washington, D.C., area, nearly 1,000 customers were without power Wednesday, while New Jersey's largest utility, Public Service Electric & Gas, reported about 6,500 customers without power.

A. Scorching temperatures return to wilting East

B. Largest Smart Grid in U.S. Gets Funding

C. U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing

Which headline above matches this lead? PHILADELPHIA – The eastern U.S. cooked for another

day Wednesday as unrelenting heat promised to push thermometers past 100 degrees in urban "heat islands," buckled roads, warped rails and pushed utilities toward the limit of the electrical grid's capacity…Scattered power outages affected customers up and down the coast and usage approached record levels. In the Washington, D.C., area, nearly 1,000 customers were without power Wednesday, while New Jersey's largest utility, Public Service Electric & Gas, reported about 6,500 customers without power.

It's not often that a press event at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting features a car. But the car that was driven into the press room today was an electric one, with some added communications skills: it could talk with the electric grid. The University of Delaware is already working with the utility PJM to test the use of electric vehicle for stabilizing the frequency of the grid, and preliminary work suggests that the payback time for the extra communication equipment may be as short as two months.

It's not often that a press event at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting features a car. But the car that was driven into the press room today was an electric one, with some added communications skills: it could talk with the electric grid. The University of Delaware is already working with the utility PJM to test the use of electric vehicle for stabilizing the frequency of the grid, and preliminary work suggests that the payback time for the extra communication equipment may be as short as two months.

Does the headline reflect the main idea of the lead?

Largest Smart Grid in U.S. Gets Funding

The largest Smart Grid project in the United States is being developed in the Pacific Northwest. The $178 million project will demonstrate and test smart-grid projects at 11 utilities, including Spokane-based Avista Utilities and Inland Power & Light. The Department of Energy has released $45 million to begin the project. Federal stimulus money is being matched by money from the utilities.

What about this headline? Is it the main idea of the lead?

Leads are important because they introduce the reader to the rest of the story. They are written to lead you into the story, after the headline attracts your attention.

...It’s a brief statement (20 to 25 words in length) of the story’s essential facts.

…It’s usually the first sentence, or in some cases the first two sentences.

GE, VCs launch $200M electric grid challenge

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal – by Mary Duan, Tuesday, July 13, 2010

General Electric Company and three Silicon Valley venture capital firms launched a $200 million open innovation challenge Tuesday seeking breakthrough ideas on the electric grid and ways to accelerate its adoption.

Technologists, entrepreneurs and start-ups have been invited to share their best ideas and come together to take on the challenges of building the next-generation power grid to meet the needs of the 21st century.

What do you think? Here we have two sentences. Are the 5 W’s answered? Does the headline fit the lead? Are the headline and the lead the major important points as briefly as

Who: GE and 3 venture capital funds What: launched $200 million open

innovation challenge When: Tuesday Why: seeking breakthrough ideas on

electric grid How: invited to share ideas and come

together

From Idaho’s largest wind farm to ‘self-healing’ grids

From the Western U.S., where construction has just started on a massive, half-billion dollar series of wind farms, to the East Coast, where Massachusetts is rolling out high-tech gear that allows power grids to “heal themselves” by isolating outages and rerouting power, it’s been a busy week for GE’s energy teams. The Idaho Wind Partners project comprises 11 wind farms-making it Idaho’s largest wind power project with the capacity to power approximately 39,700 average Idaho homes. The project is spread across 10,000 acres of active and inactive farmland in southern Idaho’s Magic Valley, which was predominantly a migration route as part of the Oregon Trail in the 19th century, and is now becoming a critical renewable energy corridor in the 21st century.

What dWhou think? Is the lead giving too much information? Is it all necessary to include all of that information in the first paragraph?

Who: Idaho wind partners project What: a million dollar series of wind farms-

making it Idaho’s largest wind power project

Where: southern Idaho’s Magic Valley, When: Now Why: becoming a critical renewable

energy corridor in the 21st century.

Elevators stopped, traffic lights darkened and much-needed air conditioners went silent during a massive power outage in South Florida this afternoon. The power outages began shortly after 1 p.m. ET, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. The outages struck the wider Miami area, extending from Boca Raton south to Key West.

Power is now being restored to many residents in South Florida. Officials say as many as three million people across the state were affected. Officials with Florida Power and Light say the outages began after an electrical substation problem.

The What: a massive power outage

The Where: South Florida

The When: this afternoon

The Why: an electrical substation problem

For today’s lesson your TGAED host will interview Mr. Ravi Raju, VP of SmartSync, an expert in the field of smart grids.

The questions were prepared earlier and are printed on the Interview Note Taking Sheet with room for you to record your answers. (Pass out

the sheets) Have your pen or pencil ready. Next, a few tips

about taking notes.

Write quickly but clearly.

The smaller the writing, the more you can fit into the space provided. Write large enough for you to be able to read it later.

Write in phrases and not complete sentences. Listen carefully, and focus so that distractions

don’t cause you to miss valuable seconds of a quote that may turn out to be important later on.

1. Take your notes and arrange them in a logical order. Look for a common theme.

2. Create an outline using your notes.3. Develop a focus. 4. Write the focus of the article down in

two or three sentences answering as many of the 5 Ws and the H as possible. This is your LEAD.

that tells the main idea of the lead as briefly and as vividly as you can. Work together individually or in small groups.

Share your headline andlead.

Publish your story in your school or community newspaper .