25. Develop an Opener (Lead)

25. Develop an opener:

directives,

quotations,

short narratives

that open an essay and allow your reader to become excited about the topic of your essay.

Directives:

commands that ask the reader to think about how their own lives connect to the subject matter of the essay. They are also commands given by the writer to the reader to provoke thought.

For example, in an essay on Henry Thoreau’s Walden an excellent directive grabber would be:

“Think about how much more contemplative, introspective, and philosophical we would be if we relinquished all of our artificial means of entertainment and lived closer to nature. Imagine life without cd players, computers, , television, and vcrs. Such was the life of Henry David Thoreau and the fruit of this lifestyle became the famous autobiographical, narrative book Walden.”

-Here the writer has made the reader become engaged with the topic by addressing the reader’s life and asking for a personal reaction before the thesis and the analysis are developed.

Quotes: excerpts from any text, including the text you are analyzing, that provide a foundation for the essay. Short commentary follows to connect the quote to the text being analyzed. For example, in an essay on Henry Thoreau’s Walden, an excellent quote to begin the essay would be:

“I have always been regretting that I am not as wise as the day as I was born.” (Thoreau 34)

This excerpt from Henry Thoreau’s Walden is central to the purpose of the book. Thoreau wants to return to a state of innocence by going to nature and simplifying his life. He wants to convince the reader that our childhood fascination with nature should not be lost in the meaningless details of adult life.

-Here the writer has made the reader become engaged with the topic by quoting from the book and developing a central theme in the book before we encounter a thesis or a plan of attack in the introduction.

Short Narratives:

quick, personal accounts from your life that help you and your reader connect to the subject matter of the essay. This brings an intimate feel to the essay and shows the reader how invested you are in the subject matter of the essay.

For example, in an essay on Henry Thoreau’s Walden an excellent short narrative to begin the essay would be:

When I was a young boy I would go to my local creek, Squaw Valley Creek, and fish all day long. I would roll cheese onto a hook and dangle a line over my favorite bank. I did not use a reel. I would catch little “trout” and fill my yellow bucket with as many as I could. I loved the fish and the creek so much that I brought them home in the bucket and hoped to create my own aquarium. Well, the fish died, and my room stank. In response to my mother’s questions about my “foolish aquarium,” I said, “I just want to be with the creek all the time.” Well, this is what Henry Thoreau realized about his life in his book Walden. Thoreau could not stand being separated from his beloved nature, so he moved to Walden Pond and stayed for two years, two months, and two days.

-Here the writer has made the reader become engaged with the topic by developing a short narrative that shows why the writer is so personally connected to the themes in Walden.