News/feature article + broadcast formats

The task concerns the opening, or 'lead', of a feature article, which has specific conventions distinct from a hard news report.

Feature leads are meant to hook readers with a scene, anecdote, image, or question rather than a flat statement of fact.

The statistic-first opening reads like a news report's inverted-pyramid urgency, not a feature's voice-led hook.

The revision is justified because it should hook the reader before delivering data, matching the choice “A feature lead should hook the reader with a scene or image before presenting facts and argument”.

The choice “Statistics are never permitted anywhere in a feature article about a social issue” is false; statistics can appear later in the piece as evidence, just not as the opening hook.

The choice “The sentence is grammatically incorrect and needs to be restructured for clarity” is irrelevant since the sentence is grammatically fine; the issue is structural, not syntactic.

The choice “Feature articles must always begin with a direct quotation from an expert source” overstates the rule; a quotation is one possible hook type, not a required one.

Only the choice “A feature lead should hook the reader with a scene or image before presenting facts and argument” correctly identifies the convention being violated: the need for a hook before fact-led content.

The choice “A feature lead should hook the reader with a scene or image before presenting facts and argument” is correct.

The nut graph must state the controlling idea, explaining what the whole piece is really about and why it matters now.

A controlling idea needs to connect specific details to a larger meaning or argument, not just report a fact or anecdote.

The choice “This quiet movement of neighbours reclaiming empty lots reveals a city rethinking who owns urban space” links the specific gardening activity to a broader claim about reclaiming space and rethinking ownership, which is the piece's real subject.

Only the choice “This quiet movement of neighbours reclaiming empty lots reveals a city rethinking who owns urban space” performs the nut graph's job of cracking open the controlling idea, so it is correct.

The choice “The city installed forty new community garden plots last spring near the river district” is a factual detail suited to the body, not a statement of the piece's larger significance.

The choice “Maria has grown tomatoes in her plot every summer since she was a teenager” is a human-interest detail that could support the human element, not state the controlling idea.

The choice “Community gardens require regular watering, weeding, and coordination among multiple volunteer groups” describes logistics rather than explaining why the topic matters to readers.

Comparing all four, only the choice “This quiet movement of neighbours reclaiming empty lots reveals a city rethinking who owns urban space” ties concrete detail to a broader claim about meaning, matching the nut graph's purpose.

The choice “This quiet movement of neighbours reclaiming empty lots reveals a city rethinking who owns urban space” is correct.