Nail the first paragraph

Introductions

Imagine you just walked into a completely strange place, a plain building with no name on the front, no signage, or other ways to find out what it’s for. Inside the building are people, but on phones, or behind glass. There are also a few rows of seats. How do you feel? Confused? Hesitant? Cautious?

That feeling is exactly what it’s like for a reader at the start of any piece of writing. A reader is disoriented, clueless about what will come next. This is a new place, they haven’t been there before.

Now imagine that outside a helpful sign says ‘Clinic’, and some signs inside say ‘Waiting area’, ‘Vaccinations this way’, ‘Emergency Department’ and so on. Maybe there’s a welcome desk with a person sitting at it, who asks what’ve come in for and tells you where to go. Would you feel a bit less confused? A bit more confident about heading on in? Of course you would. That’s because the signs and the greeter give your brain the information it needs to process and prepare for a visit to this place. Without them you’d use a lot of brain power looking for clues to solve the problem of what this place is, before you’d get down to the business of getting medical attention.

Similarly, the start of any written piece must help the reader to know what they’re about to get into. In a creative piece you must let the reader know the ‘who/what/when/ where/why’ of what’s coming up. In an analytical piece you have to say specifically what you are going to talk about, and the idea (or argument, or thesis - the terms are very similar) you will prove.