Writing Articles—The First Paragraph Matters

Most people will judge your article by its first paragraph, or first sentence, because it does not come with a cover, like books often do. Depending on how good it is, people will either read your article or judge it as trash.

Okay, this may sound scary, considering how much effort you put in! But take heart, you can write a good introductory paragraph that will get your article read.

Firstly, what may help you is to think of yourself as standing before an audience of people that assume you have the answers to thier problems. The good thing is that you are very certain that you have the answers and that these answers will surely benefit your readers. Convincing yourself about this is an easy task, but convincing your adience is not!

For one thing, your audience is quite impatient! They want the solutions ASAP, now and not later. So your task would be to convince them early on in your speech that you have the solution, else they will walk out on you.

It is pretty much the same thing when it comes to writng articles. You are addressing a very impatient audience who are looking for specific solutions to their problems. They will only seat and listen to you if you convince them you will give them those solutions, and you have got to do that in your very first paragraph.

One thing to remember is that they are millions of articles out there which talk about the same issues and no one really wants to spend time reading through all the articles unless they are mighty sure those articles are addressing their specific needs. Unfortunately, they have nothing much to tell for it, save the first paragraph. So you've got to help your readers find what they are lookin for fast (and remember, here we are assuming that you are the only one with what they need).

Your first paragraph should go hand-in-hand with your title, in short, the two should complement each other. They should not be talking about two very different things. Here's an example:

Suppose your title promises the following:

"What Men Want Most from Women."

And then, by golly, your first paragraph goes as follows:

"Women are very interesting creatures. It is very important that men know exactly what these creatures want and when. I am going to provide handy tips on how men can know exactly how to figure out what their woman wants."

Well constructed first paragraph, but it goes mighty contrary to what the title promises, and anyone reading this will know the writer has gone running a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction; and what is worse, she will not read the article because it is totally not promises to her the information she is looking for.

While it may be true that the article in the example above may provide the answers it promises in its title somewhere down the line, the reader will not wait for that! She will judge it by its very first paragraph! And that is not what you want to happen to your article right? No.

So let's get it right from the very beginning, the very first paragraph.

So, consider once more the title:

"What Men Want Most from Women."

Firstly, it is obvious that this article is addressed primarily to women, so this should come out early on in the article. The nice lady reading the article should feel that connection with the author, as if he is talking directly to her. Yes, the author has to create a relationship with her, and he should do all this in the first few sentences.

Okay, bearing this in mind, this is how I would write the paragraph:

Men are complicated creatures, aren't they? How many hours do you spend trying to figure out exactly what you should do to win their affection? How many times do you actually get it right? How many times do you get it wrong? If your answer to the later question is 'Way too many times', do not lose heart. you've knocked on the right door today!

You will notice that the above paragraph aptly fits in with the title, and what is more, the author makes sure that he creates that connection with the reader. The whole essence then, is to make the reader comfortable, to feel that she can actually trust you and that you have exactly what she is looking for. You have to do all that in the very first paragraph.

All this may sound like a lot to accomplish in the first few lines, but actually, it all becomes very simple when you shift the focus from yourself to the reader, when you construct it with the reader in mind.

Articles work well when the author sounds as if he is having a converstion with the reader where he respects her views and does not talk down at her, undermine her or disparage her. In short, to write the best articles, one has to learn how to create a friendly ambience or atmosphere in the very first paragraph.

So when it comes to writing articles, get your starting paragraph right. Set the stage properly, offer the correct salutations, present yourself propgerly, and your reader, definitely, will listen to you.

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