Advanced Writing with English in Use

Unit 9 • Articlesandreviews

2.0 Openings

AWhichof thes e eightopeningswouldyouchooseto begin an article entitled

'O pe nin gsandClosingsofMag az ineArticles'?

o

The 'o pe ni ng'is t he b eginningofa p ieceofwriti ng

(e ithe r th e first se n tenceo r the first paragraph);

th e 'clos in g'is th e wayth e pie ceofwriti nge nds

(t h e lastsentence, o r the lastparagraph ).

EJ Doo-be-doo-be-doo-wa, shawopba mboom! 7

. tterhow amag azi nea r tIcle starts.
Does It ma

D

Tolighta lire,la kea few big lo gsand a box of

m atche s. St ri ke am a tchandth e logs willeasily

ca tch fire. Later,when the fire is burningwell,

adds o me sma lle rwood,whichHUlstbeverydry.

Finally, fora big blazethatwill lasta ll e ve n ing,

throwa small twistofpaperon topofth e fire.

Isthathowto lig hta flre? Of course n o t. Yet

howfewwriter ss ta rtth e irarticl e swiththe 'twis t

of paper',the inflammableopeni ngthatwould

brlng it tolife!

f)

Two stu den t s of mine used to be grea t riva ls at

ten n is,butrecently Laura has becometoogood for

h er rival. 'Th eo n ly di ff erence is m y service', she

confided in me. ' Helena's service is sopr edictable

thatI can alwaysreturnit. But min e isnowstro n ger

a nd more var ied.Shen everknowswhatto expect .'

Th e serv icein ten nis h as a sim ilar role toth e ope n ing

of a piece of writing - and many write rs could

'improve their game' by develo ping a range of

differento pen ings.

This art icle is about ho wto begin and ho wto end

a pieceofwrit ing.

Ii)The rea r~at l e ast 15 differentways of be ginning

a ma gaz inearticle,and agooddo ze nwaysof

e nd ing: Notallof thema re possible ineverystyle

of w riti nq, butth e ability to chooseint er est ing

a nda p pro p riateo pe n ingsandclosing sis a very

usefulskill for a writer t o ha ve.

If) ~aneand Peters , intheir authoritativeworkWritingProse,
in c lu deafive-~agcessay entitled'Beginnings andClosings'.
Theessaybegins'The Britishessayistl lilaireBelloe_ who
knew,ifanyonedid,howto begin and how to endaneSS3V

• o~cewrotethat"To beginat the beginning is, nex tu»
  e n d in gat the end, thewholeart ofwriting...· Kane and Peters
  closetheir essaywithan epigramoftheirown:'Anvonecan
  stopwriting. Onlywriterscan finish:.

El

' Ju sttake th e horno u tofyo ur mouth.'This

was Miles Da vis's advice to a fellow la zz

musicianwho did n't seem to knowh ow to

en d his lengthy solos.Butwhenyouwa~tto

en d a piece of writ ing, is itenoughto lus t

putyoUI'pend own'?

BPurpose

The ope ning of amagazin e articlehaso neormorepurposes,indescending

o rderof importa nce.

• to catch readers'atte ntionandmakethem wanttore adthe rest.


• tote ll read ers what the article is going to heabou t(the topic).


• to tell re ade rs what the article is goingto say(th e content).


• tote ll re ade rshow thea rticleis goingtoheo rganized(the structure ).
  Which oftheopeningsin Abest achievesthefirstpurpose?(Inotherwords,
  which onewouldyoumost wanttore ad ?)
  2 Do any of t he openings leave you indoubtaboutthetopic ofthearticle?
  3 Which of theo peningsgivesyout he clearestidea ofwhatthewriter is going
  tosaya nd howthe article is goingtobeo rganized?

124 • Ta s ktype s