Teaching Students how to start an essay with a rhetorical question
"There are ...who will try to take an interesting out of the story simply because the detail happens to horrify or appall them. 'One of them kept saying that people read this paper at breakfast,' I was told by Edna [Buchanan], whose own idea of a successful lead is one that might cause a reader who is having breakfast with his wife to 'spit out his coffee, clutch his chest, and say, "My God, Martha! Did you read this!"'"
(Calvin Trillin, "Covering the Cops [Edna Buchanan]." "Life Stories: Profiles from The New Yorker," ed. by David Remnick. Random House, 2000)
Toby took the lead, and the demons, Death and Gabe disappeared as Katie rounded the corner of the palace. The angel released her and raced into the palace and up a set of stairs. They ascended several floors, until Katie was sucking wind bad enough to stop. Toby didn't wait for her, and she stumbled forward. The interior of the palace was unlit, and the darkness of evening crept into the hallways.
Joan Didion: "What's so hard about the first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you've laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone."
(Joan Didion, quoted in "The Writer," 1985)
She was annoyed because she feared it would lead to unhappiness.
Ron Rosenbaum: "For me, the lead is the most important element. A good lead embodies much of what the story is about—its tone, its focus, its mood. Once I sense that this is a great lead I can really start writing. It is a : a great lead really leads you toward something."
(Ron Rosenbaum in "The New New Journalism: Conversations With America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft," by Robert S. Boynton. Vintage Books, 2005)
"It's a newsroom article of faith that you should begin by struggling for the perfect lead. Once that opening finally comes to you—according to the legend—the rest of the story will flow like lava.
"Not likely...Starting with the lead is like starting medical school with brain surgery. We've all been taught that the first sentence is the most important; so it's also the scariest. Instead of writing it, we fuss and fume and procrastinate. Or we waste hours writing and rewriting the first few lines, rather than getting on with the body of the piece...
"The first sentence points the way for everything that follows. But writing it before you've sorted out your material, thought about your , or stimulated your thinking with some actual writing is a recipe for getting lost. When you're ready to write, what you need is not a finely polished opening sentence, but a clear statement of your ."
(Jack R. Hart, "A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words That Work." Random House, 2006)
"Newspaper reporters have varied the form of their work, including writing more creative story leads. These leads are often less direct and less 'formulaic' than the traditional news summary lead. Some journalists call these soft or indirect news leads.
"The most obvious way to modify a news summary lead is to use only the feature fact or perhaps two of the in the lead. By delaying some of the answers to these essential reader , the sentences can be short, and the writer can create a 'hook' to catch or entice the reader to continue into the body of the story."
(Thomas Rolnicki, C. Dow Tate, and Sherri Taylor, "Scholastic Journalism." Blackwell, 2007)
Haeckel regards it as the equivalent of the manubrium, and as it is implanted on the blind end of the pneumatophore, such a view leads necessarily to the air-sack and gland being a development on the ex-umbral surface of the medusa-person.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to write an essay introduction:
American playwright Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible (1952) displays to us that which hunt still exists in American society. Miller supports this claim by drawing parallels between the Salem Witch trials and the senator Joseph McCarthy. His purpose is to warn his readers of the dangers of mass hysteria. He uses emotional appeals and logic to convince the readers that mass “hunts” are still a danger to Americans today. The crucial way however, that Miller achieves his supreme objective of revealing the risks of reputation vs. integrity is through a fascinating character, John Proctor. John is an example of an internally conflicted character because he had a huge argument with Elizabeth over Abigail, Proctor also had an affair with Abigail, and lastly John had a choice between life and death at the end of the play.
Incessant questioning leads to answers.
The successful defence of Buenos Aires accentuated the growing feeling of dissatisfaction with the Spanish connexion, which was soon to lead to open insurrection.
How to Write an Essay Outline in 5 Simple Steps
As often happens in early youth, especially to one who leads a lonely life, he felt an unaccountable tenderness for this young man and made up his mind that they would be friends.
How to Start an Essay? Tips for an Engaging Start
This guide looks at how to use transition words in essays. We’ll explain what they are and how to use them, plus we even share an essay transition word list with the most common and useful transition words examples.
Learn How to Write an Essay Hook, With Examples
All that said, news and features don't necessarily have hard-and-fast rules about what leads work for either type; the style you take depends on the story you have to tell and how it will be most effectively conveyed.