Article Writing Basics – How to Write a Telling Intro that Captures the Attention of Readers

A hard hitting intro quickly captures the attention of your readers and attracts them to read your article till the end.

A hard hitting intro captures the essence of the story in one telling sentence. I saw the following intro on April 18.

“Virginia student kills 32 before shooting himself on his face.”

Needless to say, I was shocked and was pulled into the ‘story’ and could not take my eyes off the screen till I reached halfway down the story.

Such shocking intros are not needed in article writing. In 99% of the case, it is not possible either. However, you can capture the essence of your article in a small sentence. That sentence needs to sell the article. That is, the reader must feel like reading the whole article after reading that first sentence.

The first sentence of the letter can cover up a weak headline to a small extent.

It is not really an easy task. But our teacher, John Mary, who is also a long term press reporter once has shown us how simple it is to write ‘leads’ or ‘intros’ to write stories that sell.

It is really simple to write an intro that captures the attention of readers. All you have to do is to imagine yourself in a specific situation.

Imagine you have some news that you want to pass to your friend. Your friend is travelling on a bus and you wait at the bus stop. You see the bus stop is not busy and the bus would wait for only a few seconds. How will you pass the news to your friend? Will you describe all the details or tell him? No way. You will just single out one or two elements of the ‘news’ you have and shout them to your friend, before the bus is gone.

Similar is the case of intro writing. You bring the most important aspects of the story to a single sentence and that sentence is the intro (or lead as most journalists like to call it).

Yet Another Approach to Intro Writing for Article Writing

Open an article in a conversational note. That is, write the sentences as if you are talking to your friend. More than 90% of article writing falls in this category.

There are no special efforts to bring in any effects. Just tell the readers what you have to say in your own style.