1. Opening leads examples

2. Start with a snapshot It is ten degrees below zero and the pond is frozen solid. At times it makes snapping sounds like the limbs of trees cracking. A lone figure slides along the black ice, smoothly and gracefully. The only sound is the scraping of each blade as it bites into the river. This is an ice skater gliding along the glassy surface. Many people enjoy the outdoors during the winter. They play and participate in different sports. Some like skiing, snowboarding, and sledding. Another great winter sport is ice-skating. BORING BETTER

3. State something people have long believed – something you’re about to show is or is not true For hundreds of years, society has accepted certain roles as “men’s work” and “women’s work.” Men earned money, completed outside tasks, and “did the dirty work,” while women raised the family, cooked, cleaned, and kept the house presentable. While we still see these traditional roles in modern families, new research suggests that some people are breaking the mold and thriving as a result. Some men and women are taking on jobs originally meant for people of the other gender. BORING BETTER

4. Include some humor “If a dog gains a few pounds, it is not in the least concerned, because it lacks human vanity. Besides, a dog enjoys the perfect disguise for physical flaws: fur.” - Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life My wife and I decided to go on a diet but didn’t want to starve the dog. BORING BETTER

5. Share a surprising fact or statistic – surprise the reader Europeans spend $11 billion yearly on ice cream, $2 billion more than what is needed to provide clean water and safe sewers for the world’s population. The government should put more money into protecting the earth’s water. BORING BETTER The government should reconsider the right for citizens to own handguns. BORING In 1993, handguns were responsible for 37,184 deaths in the U.S. BETTER

6. Raise an intriguing question to which you will respond Are you short? Overweight? Or both? If so, forget about becoming a high school principal. Recent research has shown that school superintendents rate tall and slim applicants much higher than short and chubby ones. Perhaps these results say something about society’s ideal image of a leader. American society seems to have an ideal image of what a leader should look like. BORING BETTER

7. Tell a brief anecdote or story “My childhood was spent in two places. I grew up half in the city and half in the country. My father was a senator from Tennessee and worked in Washington, D.C., so that’s where I went to school. But summers were spent on our family’s farm in Carthage, Tennessee. I’d go from living in a small eighth-floor apartment whose windows looked out on concrete parking lots and buildings to a sprawling farm with animals, sunlight, open sky, and the sparkling water of the Caney Fork River …. The way we thought about nature and Earth was never the same again.” - Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth Global warming is a serious world problem. BORING BETTER

8. Build suspense – startle the reader “The spooky moment central to this story comes on an evening more than ten years ago.” - Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life Trixie was a great dog. BORING BETTER

9. Open with a quotation “All that glimmers is not gold.” This quote by William Shakespeare reminds us that when deciding something’s value, we must not be fooled by what’s on the outside but rather look to what lies within. Beauty should be judged by what’s on the inside. BORING BETTER