Openingsand closings • Mo d ul e9ACNinewaysofopeninganarticle
Matchth e openings1-8 inA with thefollow ingcategoriesa-i.Someof the
categories may havemorethan one examp le;othe rs mayhavenone.
a AsUY1Jr;s;ng!llct ,perhapsincluding statistics.
h Asurprising,shockingo rbiZilrrestatement.The readerkeepsre adingout
ofc uriosity: howare yo u going to continue ?DoYO\lreallybelievethat?What
onearth arey 0 1ltalkingahout?
c Aquestion.This help s to de finethesubjectofa pie c eofwriting.Italsostarts
readersthinking about thesubject,makingthem want to read whatyo uhave
to say.
d Aquotation.
e Astorythat illustrate s what)' 0 11are going to say .Itlila)' he a storyaboutthe
subjec titsel f;itIllayhe a sto ryaboutanothertopicthat has some thingill
commonwith the subje ctofyo urart icle.
f As ta te me ntofth etopic .The statement men tio ns what thetopicis, and
o fte nsumm arizeswhatyou aregoingto say.This ope ning is oftenthekey to
the organizationand paragraphin gofthe article.
g Allefinitionoftiretopic(so me times adictiona rydefinition ). This opcnin g
may heapp rop riate,b utis oneofthe le astinte re sting.
It Adescriptionorimagethat evoke sa suitableatmosphereorsymbo lizes the
who le question.
A reference to a u'ell-knowuphrasefrom lite rature, a song,ap roverb,e tc.;
an allusion or'rew ritte n' quot ation.
2 Here arefivemore openi ngs,all ofthemintroducingan article on thesame
subject.What subject?Ii]
As MarkTwainmighthaveputi t , reports ofthe
deathofthe family havebeen greatly exaggerated.m
JaneSmithis aj unki ebecauseboth her parent s
areinth e police force. Shehadproblem sat
school , butw henshegothom eshefoundno one
to talkto. The day shebrok eupw it h herboyf riend,
both her parent s wereworki ng lat e.Jane' s parent s
w ere nevertherew hen she wantedt hem. If they
had been ,would she have neededtoturnt o drugs?minth eory womenare free,yet everyw here they arestili
indomest icchains.
rnJ
It's 6.00 in the eveningand Jasonhas justcookeddinner for
two. He's sittinginthe kitchen,waiting.lie's had along day.
lie got up at7.30, ale breakfast alone, did thewashing-up
and made his bed.lie still hadn't seen orspokento
anybodywhenbe lefthome at 8.30. Jasonis 12yearsold.
lie'swaiting for his dad to come homefrom work.rnForty years ago, 75% ofw ives in Britain were
'h ou sewives' w hose husbands were working:today
only 20 % ofB ri ti sh fam i l ies fit this model.What
facto rs haveled to thischange,and w hateffecthas it
had on socie ty , in particular the upbringing of
chi l dre n?3 Matc hth eseopeningstothecategoriesa-iabove.
4 Which of t he openings 1-13 use quotationsordirectspeech?Wouldthese
openingsbe just as goo dw ithout the quot ations ordirectspeech?
5 Someof theopenings(e.g.8) onlyusewordsandide as. Wou ld you agree
t hat it ismoreinterestingto useimagesandpictures?Which openings do
this, and whichof themis most successful?Tasktyp es • 125