Lead-Ins
Attention grabbers!
“Once upon a time” is dead.
Definition:
The lead-in is an attention getter. It should
catch the reader’s attention and make the
reader want to read the essay.
The lead-in basically sets the story or
essay up.
Types of Lead-Ins
Questions
Announcement
Bold or Challenging
Statement
Quotation
Short Story or Tidbit
Examples of
Lead-Ins…
Question:
 Have you ever wondered how you’d
survive if you found yourself alone in
the wilderness?
 Was it the crash of a giant meteor or
the relentless movement of ice?
Announcement:
 This is not a cookbook for the gourmet.
These recipes are strictly for the cook on
a tight budget.
 It’s only a stone, but it sits smoothly in
your hand, as if you’d caught a tiny
rainbow.
A Bold or challenging
Statement:
 Contrary to what some people think,
most of our learning takes place out of
school.
 Here he comes world! – our local golf
champion.
Quotation:
 “You’re going to regret this.” That’s what
my best friend Liza said as we got on the
roller coaster.
 “I’ll get you my pretty,” Hurricane Katrina
said to the Gulf Coast.
Short story or tidbit of
information:
 In the twilight, they come on leathery wings
and begin to eat.
 It was dark and the scratch of the twisted oak
raked across the screen door. Everyone’s
breath stilled in fear as the wind whipped its
way through the town. This was a hurricane no
one would soon forget.
Lead-Ins in
Literature
Zeely
by Virginia Hamilton
“There was an awful racket and
swoosh as the books John Perry
carried slipped out of his arms
and scattered over the floor.”
A Long Way from Chicago
by Richard Peck
“You wouldn’t think we’d have to
leave Chicago to see a dead
body.”
Pigman
by Paul Zindel
“Now I don’t like school, which you
might say is one of the factors
that got us involved with this old
guy we nicknamed the Pigman.
Actually, I hate school, but then
again most of the time I hate
everything.”
Perloo – The Bold
by Avi
“Thickly falling snow, tossed and
turned by wailing winds, filled the
air with streaky blurs of white
and gray. It was hard to see. It
was hard to move. It was even
hard to breathe.
Bridge to Terabithia
by Katherine Paterson
“Ba-room, ba-room, ba-room,
baripity, baripity, barpity, baripity
– Good. His dad had the pickup
going. He could get up now.”
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
“You don’t know about me, without you
have read a book by the name of The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t
no matter. That book was made by Mr.
Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.
There was things which he stretched, but
mainly he told the truth.”
Slam
by Walter Dean Myers
“Basketball is my thing. I can hoop. Case
closed. I’m six four and I got the moves,
the eye, and the heart. You can take my
game to the bank and wait around for the
interest. With me it’s not like playing a
game, it’s like the only time I’m being for
real. Bring the ball down the court makes
me feel like a bird that just learned to fly.”
Athletic Shorts
by Chris
Crutcher
“Sometimes when I stand back
and take a good look, I think my
parents are ambassadors from
hell. Two of them, at least, the
biological ones, the big ones.”
Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
“It is my first morning of high
school. I have seven new
notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a
stomachache.”
Maniac Magee
by Jerry Spinelli
“They say Maniac Magee was
born in a dump. They say his
stomach was a cereal box and
his heart a sofa spring.”