Digital Story

WRITING LEADS FOR YOUR ESSAYS

  I. Lead with a question.

 If there were a terrible war in your country and you knew that the 30,000 books in your town library were in danger of being burned, would you risk your life to save them? If you answered no, don’t feel badly; few would risk their life to save some books.

 This lead is meant to introduce a piece about a book titled, The Librarian of Basra, which is a true story of a librarian in Iraq who risked her life to save the books in her town library.

  II. Lead with an interesting fact.

 Imagine a composer of music who was so prolific that if you were to copy all of his music by hand it would take you 40 years to finish the job! That composer is Johan Sebastian Bach, a true musical genius if ever there was one.

 

 III. When you finish writing your lead, here are some questions to help you analyze its effectiveness:

 Did you learn what the piece is about?

What did the author do that grabbed you?

·      What made the lead boring?

·      What did the lead make you wonder?

·      What details does the lead include?

·      How could this lead be improved?

·      Which lead would you choose? Explain why.

 From: Nonfiction Writing From the Inside Out,  by Laura Robb p. 116

  See:    http://voicethread.com/?#u556664