Words Fail Me Read Online Free Page B

you. You might make a chart listing the ideas in progression, with notations under each idea telling you which supporting materials to include. Or if you prefer, and if you have the space, arrange the piles in a neat row, one pile (labeled clearly) for each major idea on your list.
    Expect your organization plan to stretch and change as you go along. It's
supposed
to. If it doesn't, there's something wrong. In the process of writing, you'll get ideas you weren't expecting. A hunch may come out of the blue, and suddenly you're off on an adventure. This phenomenon is called creativity, and your framework must inevitably change to accommodate it. A plan is supposed to help you write, and when it doesn't do that, it doesn't work. If you have to stand on your head to follow a blueprint, maybe the blueprint is upside down.

4. Commencement Address
THE FIRST FEW WORDS
    Imagine you're on
Oprah.
The camera swivels your way, the red light is in your face,
you're on.
    What do you say? Your mouth opens, and out comes..."Uhhh, ahhh." The camera swivels away. In a split second, you've ruined your life!
    Don't let this happen to you. Whether you're on camera or at the keyboard, get to it. Those first few words are your most important. They determine whether the audience will stick around for the rest.
    An audience is a terrible thing to lose. Gorgeous writing, moving passages, clever wordplay, startling ideas— they're all wasted if nobody reads far enough to find them. Avoid throwaway beginnings like these:

    My purpose in writing this report on the plight of the takeout pizza industry is to show that...
    I confess it's not without some trepidation that I turn to the subject of Elvis sightings, but...
    At this point in time, you've no doubt observed that the frequent flyer...
    The subject of this paper, potty training, has been the focus of considerable interest recently because...
    It may be idle to speculate on the chances of a comet's destroying life on earth, and yet...
    Needless to say, it's safe to assume that when we consider the rise of plastic wrap and the decline of waxed paper...
    Generalities are hard to make, but my experience with alien abductions has been that...
    After giving the subject of fat deprivation much thought, I can assert without fear of contradiction...
    It's valuable to recall that only a few short years ago, the passenger pigeon was...
    Eventually we all must acknowledge that the demographic impact of the station wagon...
    Opinions to the contrary notwithstanding, it is distinctly possible that Jack the Ripper...
    Don't start out by clearing your throat.
    Now that you know what
not
to do, how do you find a beginning that works? The one you choose depends on your audience and on how you've decided to organize your piece. A meteorologist writing an article for the
Journal of Macromolecular Hermeneutics
wouldn't start out the same way as an Army chaplain planning a Memorial Day sermon or a stockbroker making a pitch to an investment club. Here are a few opening gambits.
Sum-Upmanship
    One way to start your piece—as well as to get yourself writing—is to sum it up at the beginning. Write a short paragraph to tell the reader where you're going:
what
you plan to say,
why
it needs saying, and
how
you'll do it. A paper on Elizabethan drama might start this way: "Shakespeare's male-pattern baldness had a profound effect on his work. This revelation throws new light on his later plays, as a close examination of them will show."
    Summarizing the what, the why, and the how (the third degree you gave yourself in the previous chapter) will help you start and keep you focused. In later drafts, this paragraph might move to another spot—after an opening anecdote, for example—or disappear altogether if it becomes unnecessary.
    The summary beginning has been around for a long time, and it still works. In the fifth century B.C., Herodotus used this technique to begin his history of the Persian Wars. While