Openings, titles and endings
Titles and openings earn attention and establish what a factual piece offers its reader. Endings carry the central idea forward, leaving the reader with something to consider or do.
The lede and the first paragraph
The lede is the opening sentence or paragraph intended to capture attention and create enough interest to read the full story. Editing should check whether it is actually at the beginning or buried further into the text.
News articles and blog posts should use the inverted pyramid, placing the most important point and its implications in the opening paragraph rather than beginning with background as academic training often teaches. A lede can summarise the main ideas, introduce a character, tell a story, quote someone or state what is new.
A 2017 palliative-care blog opening began with a 70-year-old woman in India banging her head against the walls and screaming from advanced oral-cancer pain, then connected the memory her family would retain to the report that fewer than 1% of patients there had prescription-opioid access, even in advanced disease. An editing exercise makes the same structural point by promoting a quotation that highlights a problem's root cause to the opening sentence.
The traditional news lead contains who, what, when, where and why, giving the gist even to readers who stop after the first paragraph. Feature stories and magazine articles need not follow that pattern; an attention-grabbing hook may sit in the title, the lead or both together.
Titles that attract the intended reader
A title should spark interest while accurately representing what follows. Catchiness can put accuracy under pressure, and a title also needs to be informative enough to be found through information retrieval. The aim is to engage people who want or need the work rather than attract the largest possible audience through fleeting curiosity.
Examples of titles used as hooks include:
- Writing with Suspenders.
- This: (), That: — —, and The Other Things:,,.
- Sharp…but Dull.
- Title is Vital.
- This is a Complaint.
- Times, They Are A-changin’.
A title can also take the form of a question, as in Good Ole Days? or Have You Ever Seen…the Singular?
The title and lead together
A title can make a point that its lead answers or complicates, creating a hook through their combination. Examples pair the two in several ways:
| Subject | Title | Opening |
|---|---|---|
| People brilliant in their field who become boring speakers | “Sharp…Dull” | “How can that be? Isn’t that an oxymoron?” |
| The most important question a physician can ask a patient | “Your Most Important Question” | “All right, Mrs. Brown, that about does it. I’ll see you in three weeks.” |
| Listening to patients | “Listen to the Patient” | “A red light means STOP. A flashing red light means STOP! LOOK! LISTEN!” |
A further opening asks what an article in the Wall Street Journal can teach about patient care. An independent lead can also attract attention through an instruction or reversal:
- “First, I will advise you: Do not write a speech.”
- “Years ago, it was easier. Most students didn’t know the answer.”
Familiar song lyrics, book quotations and jokes can create curiosity; one example describes a camel as a horse put together by a committee.
An eye-catching title or clever lead needs an intelligent transition to the serious subject, reaching the substance quickly after gaining attention. The writer's control of the title depends on the publication: some allow columnists to write their own heading, while others supply a news headline.
Moving beyond a title gives the writer a chance to justify the reader's time, so the first paragraph or two should show what to expect and why it matters to the reader. Interesting facts, anecdotes and thought-provoking questions can make that introduction compelling.
Endings that carry the idea
The last paragraph is often remembered most and should contain the article's idea with impact comparable to the lede. A Parkinson's-cure article, for example, ended by calling for continued collaboration, concentrated effort and investment in promising research areas.
An ending should avoid merely regurgitating what has already been said, which can revive boredom and leave readers deflated. It can instead leave questions to consider, next steps to take or the beginning of a meaningful discussion. The desired disappointment is regret that the reading has ended, rather than regret at having read it.