OPENINGS-- Informational Writing

The learning target says...write an introduction that interests the reader. It implies
that you, as the writer, will explain the significance of the topic; provide a compelling fact, statistic, or
anecdote; clearly include what parts of this topic the text will tackle; explain how the ideas and
information in the text will unfold.

Begin with your topic!

make it plain what you will be explaining without saying something obvious (like Im
going to talk about... or This paper is about...)

cleverly catch your audiences attention... make your audience want to know more!

Beginnings-- a few professional examples

He had a few more minutes to destroy seventeen years of evidence. Still in pajamas,
Harry Gold raced around his cluttered bedroom, pulling out desk drawers, tossing
boxes out of the closet, and yanking books from the shelves. He was horrified.
Everywhere he looked were incriminating papers-- a plane ticket stub, a secret report, a
letter from a fellow spy... ~Steve Sheinkin BOMB

On May 24, 2010, rescue workers donned impermeable hazardous material suits, then
burrowed into the creaking, dangerous confines of a ruined South Side Chicago home,
searching for the elderly couple trapped inside. More than an hour later, as curious
neighbors gathered and a television crew arrived to film the emergency rescue
operations, Jesse Gaston, a seventy-six-year-old chemist, and his wife, Thelma, a
retired schoolteacher, walked unsteadily into the hazy afternoon light, dehydrated and
hungry but still among the living. The Gastons had been trapped by trash-- their own
trash.

~Edward Humes, Garbology

My mission: Get inside a cereal factory. Level of difficulty: Shockingly high. Its
probably easier to get into a bank vault. I phone Fellogg (not real name) in Battle
Creek, Michigan, and am given a polite but definite No. I dispatch several of my
people with instructions to be as nice as possible to anyone in the business in order to
get me in. No luck...

~Nancy Kangas Notes of a Cereal Spy

Most people dont know very much about lizards. This seems odd when you consider
that lizards-- or saurians, as they are sometimes called-- are the most common reptiles
on the planet. According to the German Herpetological Societys TIGR Reptile
Database, scientists have described more than five thousand species of lizards-- more
than all other reptiles combined. So why dont people know much about lizards?
Maybe we dont bother learning about them because lizards cant win football games or
help us with our homework. Maybe lizards are so common we simply overlook them.
But maybe, just maybe, we dont know about lizards because most of us have never had
the chance to. . .

~Sneed B. Collard III Most Fun Book Ever About Lizards

Imagine that you are a cupcake-- an enormous cupcake, as big as a softball with a gooey
crown of sweet frosting and, for good measure, a crunchy crust of crumbled Oreos. You
are delicious. Now imagine that you are about to be eaten by a kid. Let's call him Sam.
(Don't be scared. It won't hurt.) Sam is very nice. He deserves a treat. Too bad you are
going to wreck Sam's day. even worse-- when Sam gets a little older, you are going to
play a role in making him very sick. Sam should be running away from you as fast as he
can, but right now, you seem very. . . sweet. So Sam sinks his teeth into you, flavor
exploding on his tongue. He gobbles you up and brushes the crumbs from his T-shirt.
Yum! At first, Sam feels amazing. Then it comes: the sugar rush.

~Kristen Lewis and Lauren Tarshis, This Cupcake is Trying to Hurt You. Scholastic
Scope October 2015