Openers
paragraphs, introductions, etc.
The opening is your first chance to make a good impression.
Grab your readers’ interest and make them want to stay with you.
A thoughtful, imaginative opener will persuade your audience that you – and your ideas
– are worthy of their time and attention.
A poorly written opener, on the other hand, will create a bad impression and will make
audiences wonder why they should bother spending time in your company.
The opening is malleable depending on the format of the paper,
your purpose and your audience.
In general, an expository opener (literary analysis, researched argument) will include:
1 a hook (also called an attention getter or grabber) AND an explanation of the
hook’s significance IF it is not self-explanatory. Ex. When you open with a quote,
you CANNOT assume that your audience will see the same significance you see
UNLESS you articulate your thinking for them.
2 a transition to your claim. This transition will be dictated by form and purpose.

In literary analysis papers, transitions often give summary information
on characters, plots, or symbols.

In argumentation, transitions may develop an illustrative example.
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In speeches, your transition may even outline the order of the topics of
your speech.
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Another idea for your transition is to define key words or phrases that
help anchor your paper.
3 your central claim.
your speech.
ANCHOR.
Remember, your claim is the central focus of your paper or
Claims might be called your THESIS, your ARGUMENT, or your
.
In a narrative paper or a personal essay, you may develop your opener as an extended
description or anecdote.
STILL, you should choose your opening subject based on its
ability to interest your audience.
HOOK……them.
Review these strategies.
Provocative Statement
Provocative: evoke a strong reaction (annoyance, shock, anger)
 She is an academic call girl. She writes college kids’ papers for a living. Term
papers, book reports, senior theses, take-home exams. . . (Abigail Witherspon “This
Pen For Hire”)
 Oprah Winfrey is beautiful; Lindsey Lohan is not. (AC student)
Question
Rhetorical Question: A question whose answer is obvious.
DANGER: You don’t want your audience to start by disagreeing with you and
you don’t want to put them to sleep with a “like duh” question.
 (weak) What is the best sandwich in the world? (AC student)
 (better) Does a true Cardinal fan actually bleed red? (AC student)
 (pretty darn original) Can nail polish transcend the border between fingerpainting and elevated art? (AC student)
Hypophora: Figure of reasoning in which one or more questions is/are asked and then
answered.
 When the enemy struck on that June day of 1950, what did America do? It did
what it always has done in all its times of peril. It appealed to the heroism of its
youth. (Dwight D. Eisenhower)
List
 Flashlights have the power to light up dark corners, empower the faint of heart,
and banish the boogeyman. (AC student)
Vary the length of your list.
Twist the list by ending with something seemingly incongruous.
 Three things that created evolutionary jumps in human history are the discovery
that the Earth is round, the creation of the internet, and the mass production of the
Nike. (AC student).
Connection to a
Current Event
(see following handout for a
detailed example of how to
try this strategy)
 The Rally Squirrel is a fearless creature. But swinging Rangers stand no chance
against the wily creature, and neither do the spiritless St. Louis natives who suffer
from a lack of Cardinal pride. (AC student)
Description/Imagery
 A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den,
his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he lives in his den for two days without
leaving. Outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies
than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct,
he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or
crunching the rain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist
refused to kill a weasel who was socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The
man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a mile to water,
the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label. (Annie
Dillard “Living Like Weasels.”)
Surprising Fact or Statistic
 The heel itself is a mark of nobility. The earliest information we have on the high
heel being used for riding, describes invading Mongol tribesmen wearing bright red
wooden heels. Mongols were consummate horseman and their easy victories left a
mark on European society. Since owning an caring for a horse requires some wealth
and since being horseback places a person physically above the common man, riders
and, consequently, high heels became associated with nobility. To this day, we say
well-heeled to describe someone who is wealthy or aristocratic. (AC student – with
whom I had a discussion about plagiarism).
Anecdote
Anecdote: a small story
 Yesterday morning I watched as my older sister left for school with a white glob
of toothpaste gleaming on her chin. I felt no regret at all until she stepped onto the
bus. . .
Background Information
History; Etymology
Quotation
Other things you might
consider
 The term soccer originated as a shortened form of Association. The term Football
Association was shortened to Assoc, but they could hardly call a sport asser. (AC
student)
 Albert Einstein once said, “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty
girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
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If you are writing analysis, use a quote from the piece you are analyzing.
If you are writing analysis, try imitating the author’s style.
Start with the opposite of what you will argue or ultimately describe.
Things To AVOID:

Apology: I have only read the novel once, and I am not an expert on the subject,
but…

Complaint: I’d rather write about a topic of my own choice than the one that is
assigned, but here goes…

Webster’s Dictionary: Webster’s defines snore as “to breathe during sleep with a
rough hoarse noise.”

Platitude: America is the land of opportunity, and no one knows it better than the
cast of Jersey Shore.

Reference to Title: As you can see from my title, this essay is about Simon’s
decisions in Touching the Void.

Do Nothing