Lead comparison

Instructions: Evaluate the following leads in terms of how well they summarize the news and catch the readers' attention. Choose the lead that you think does the best job of doing these two things and explain the reasons for your choice.

a. The USA's 40 million Social Security recipients will get an unexpected benefit from the inflation: fatter checks.

b. The nation's 40 million Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 5.4 percent cost-of-living increase in January, the biggest boost in eight years, the government announced Thursday.

c. The nation's 40 million Social Security recipients will receive their biggest increase in eight years in January, a 5.4 percent increase that will average an extra $31 a month.

Here are the leads for the same story as they appeared in four newspapers. Choose the best and explain your reasons.

a. The USA's top earthquake scientists are hooting at a prediction that a major earthquake will strike the Midwest in early December.

b. A national panel of earthquake experts ripped on Thursday the track record of Ibex Browning, the New Mexico climatologist who predicted a greatly increased chance of a quake around Dec. 3 along the New Madrid fault.

c. The nation's experts say that you, too, can predict the date of the next big earthquake in the Midwest with all the accuracy of the famed Ibex Browning. Just start throwing darts at a calendar.

d. Predictions of a major earthquake in the midwest in early December are without scientific basis and could even be dangerous, experts said Thursday.