When we write for college courses, we write for an audience other than ourselves. And it is an audience of more than one: the teacher who assigned the piece. A good way to think about the audience (and never forget it) is to imagine that we are writing the assignment for a popular magazine found in multiple copies on the shelves of an equally popular bookstore. For every magazine sold, pretend, we get a percentage.
Our goal, then, is to have as large and widespread a readership as possible, to hook as many browsers as we can, with an effective opener (aka introduction). Therefore, we must engage, first, before entertaining, educating or informing.
First, the caveats and comments about ineffective (bad) openers
NO to SNORE openers – Forget overwhelming or alienating your readers with comments about how many people in many countries have many different ideas about life and society and all those other hard to understand opening comments blah blah blah. …which really sends the reader off for a more intriguing read.
NOT to OBVIOUS – Similar to snoring generalizations, obvious comments in an opener will have eyes (if not heads) rolling as readers watch that TV is mind masturbation or ads are used to manipulate us into statements you can avoid, using a instead, say, an old Marshall McCluhan quote or a description of the Cleo Awards.
NO to HYPERBOLE – Having spent school as a waitress, I had several regular customers who were also writers, they said. They talked to me throughout my shift, reciting their best work. One insisted on reiterating his description of the rolling green hills kissing the edges of the glistening waters at the foot of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge…until I was driven so mad that I fantasized about bringing the weight of gleaming crystal coffee pots home screaming about his head. In other words, don’t overdo it. Don’t bring heavy drama and description that will overwhelm and, again, turn your readers away. Stick with the truth. Stick with openers that work.
We use modes to engage starters…and I’m going to use one here, out of necessity…and spite
I once read a how-to article on how to write web content, on how to create a site that attracts traffic (the attention of many). I had already reluctantly given in to the understanding that web content writing is very different from academic writing: it has different goals, different audiences, and different elements that lend themselves to ‘A’ writing. It’s so different, in fact, that to write for the web we have to unravel everything we’ve worked to weave together, we have to unlearn everything we’ve learned as college English writers.
Don’t confuse web content/writing and academic writing
So the writer of this article says to start web copy, skip the opener and go straight to the main point (what we know in academia as the thesis). Good. This made sense, I thought, since web readers read differently: they speed read, skim, scan, skip… to draw the most useful information in the shortest possible time. (Probably the way you’re reading now, hoping to get on with the point.)
-I was with Mr. Web when he explained these facts.
-I was with him as he noted the research findings that support the justification for sacrificing good academic exposure for web text.
-And I was there with his tips and tricks, which were great… until he went too far, editorializing on writers who actually use openers:
He stated that writers who rely on openers do not have “the courage” to cut to the chase. So he lost me.
Don’t let anyone embarrass your learning writing tricks
We can adapt to almost any rhetorical style. We can adjust our notions of what constitutes good writing. But we must refuse when a procedural writer insults other writing methods. We should even ignore the implications of cowardice as unnecessary ad hominem attacks. Fake attacks. Fallacious and flaccid and frivolous teaching. Screw that.
Academic essay writing readers appreciate (even prefer) a good start
Openers in academic writing, whether in a creatively developed literary response or in a historical study, are imperatives. They are a smoother way to engage our readers. It’s quite difficult to get it right at first, but mastering them, which is possible, has nothing to do with courage, which comes from the French word “coeur”, heart. We have a lot of heart. We’re studying English, for God’s sake.
Against my wishes, then, this page opens with a statement and gets straight to the point. First. But it also has a “grabber” inserted, because we’re looking at grabbers and because, well, I can’t help it. I want to model decent prose for you.
Samples of effective trial initiations by mode/type
Even better, I’ll share with you some samples, written by my former students (who have granted permission for the use of their work as models):
****People love stories. We love to tell stories. The narrative opener:
Once upon a time, during the era of slavery, white people were afraid of black people, and the “word” was born. That’s why someone came up with the “word”. Two hundred years later, in my sister’s house, the children still use this “word.” Sometimes I even hear myself say this “word”. But guess that? I review and correct myself, because when you use the “word” to address someone, no matter who you are or what color you are, it is totally disrespectful.
The word: “black”. (1)
****To establish credibility, try a sober and academic introduction. The stats/facts opener:
By the age of forty-four, 47 percent of American women will have had an abortion. (Day 6) To describe this statistic as anything other than a tragedy is to deny the sanctity of human life. The Christian debate on abortion is based on the moral and theological dimension[s] of this problem To examine the moral dimensions of abortion without examining the social realm is to ignore the relationship of mutual dependency that surrounds this debate. (2)
****Appealing to the senses attracts and keeps readers interested. The descriptive opener:
The rain lashes my car relentlessly as I drive home from [XXX] Middle School. Cars speeding down the highway turn water on the pavement into a fine mist, surrounding each and every vehicle in a billowing layer of opacity. Finally, I arrive in front of my small two-bedroom house. With a sigh of relief, I walk into my living room.
Lately, this house has become a haven of security, shielding me from both the elements of nature and the unpredictable and unprovoked malevolence I experience from one of my instructors. My fear is increased by the fact that I seem to be the main recipient of this teacher’s outbursts of evil. Slowly my gaze scans the room, stopping at the play I have to read for my English class. It’s Mamet’s Oleanna. I pick up the book and soon find myself drawn into the story. Quickly, it becomes clear to me that this work [deals with] the relationship between a teacher (John) and his student (Carol). While both characters show evidence of an interesting variety of behavior, I am more mesmerized by John. I’m beginning to wonder if John is showing symptoms of an underlying psychological disorder. (3)
Place the readers in the frame, inside the paper. The Direct Address Opener:
You are in the middle of a burning hell. Your mind moves at the speed of light. Yet you are paralyzed by fear. The silence is deafening within the confinement of the four walls. You are no longer in control. You wonder how communication between family members, specifically between Mother and Father, has ceased. With each passing day, only silence is heard. The usual small talk at the dinner table is greatly reduced. It all comes down to: “Pass me the corn, please.” Or one who excuses himself from the table. (4)
Advance on trust, establish authority early on. The Authorized Dating Opener:
“Generations of students have studied calculus without ever seeing its power.” This statement is found in an article by KC Cole entitled “Bringing Calculus Down to Earth” in The Los Angeles Times. I certainly agree with Cole. Earlier in the course of the class (calculus), he was not sure about the use of calculus and the importance of it. Others like me, like friends, felt the same. For this reason, I suppose, I am doing this research. This research is for students like me to realize that “there is something about calculus”, as Cole states in the article… (5)
Continue with the traditional “Show, don’t tell” lesson. The opening example:
Sex is great. For me, it’s all about feelings and experiences: the sensation of flesh against flesh, the experience of orgasm after orgasm. Sometimes there is even that feeling of being special, wanted and loved. I guess my parents had sex. Not really an image I like to bring to mind. But when my father has sex with someone other than my mother, how am I supposed to feel then? (6)
Interact by soliciting reader feedback and thoughtful participation. The Deep Rhetorical Question Opener:
Is the play, True West, written by actor/writer Sam Shepard, a sublimation of his own sibling rivalry or a rationalization of one? Write about two brothers who are equal in intelligence but opposite in character. The elder brother lives by his wit and the younger by his pen. In his unique style, Shepard uses many symbols that describe the intense emotions that make up these two brothers. He also uses metaphors that take you, the audience, into the depths of anger, pain, and the reality of life… (7)
Finally, the promotion of (good) effective openers
YES to APPROPRIATE introductory material. That is, use an opener that is relevant to the topic of your essay. Use an opener that fits the material. For example, a definition of alcoholism (which might work if you were writing a book) might be too clunky for a cause-and-effect article studying the influences of alcoholism on the family.
YES to APT openers. Do the modes in which you are best at writing. And do what you like to do the most. Write down what works for you, your audience, and your task.
YES, overlay modes. A narrative opener will have descriptive details. A quote can be combined with statistics and facts. But instead of stumbling over the exact boundaries between modes or types of writing passages, focus on the details of an opening type as you understand it. The rest will be additional material that will simply enhance your style.
And YES to engaging and seductive introductions that take your readers to the place where your thesis/opinion is waiting to declare its bold and informed truths. That should never be denied or neglected…more so than your audience should be.
final notes
(1) Bronson, A. “The Word.”
(2) Roncella, L. “Judging Abortion.”
(3) Prince, U. “Who cares? [A Study of Oleanna]”
(4) Toulouse, W. “Dark silence.”
(5) Pham, D. “Calculus as a necessary tool.”
(6) Gutiérrez, R. “Dad, why cheat?”
(7) Stark, C.[…a Study of the Psychology of True West].”