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Sprint 1.2: The Sentence That Announces It

Learner writes a sentence that tells the reader what the paragraph will be about, and places it where the paragraph needs it rather than always first.

6 micro-lessons

Preview · progress not saved — Chapter 1 is free

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When Did You Know What This Was About?

Six openings judged by what they predict.

1 / 6

Transport is an important issue in many countries today. What does this opening tell the reader to expect?

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Tell Them Early, Not Necessarily First

What it does, where it goes, and how specific it must be.

Tell them early

A topic sentence tells the reader what to do with the sentences that follow.

Without one they store information and wait.

✗ Transport is an important issue today.
✓ Free transport removes the cost advantage of driving.

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Announces Something, or Nothing

Twelve openings, six of each.

Sort each item into the correct category

Announces a paragraph

Announces nothing

Unassigned

Free transport removes the cost advantage of driving.

Transport is an important issue in many countries.

An entry charge decides who visits a museum, not who is interested.

There are advantages and disadvantages to free museums.

Teenage sleep cycles shift later during adolescence.

Education is a topic that concerns everyone.

Fear of traffic is what keeps most people off bicycles.

This paragraph will discuss cycling infrastructure.

One wrong item is enough to have a whole recycling load rejected.

Recycling is a complex issue with many aspects.

Space is the second largest cost most firms carry.

Remote work has become increasingly common in recent years.

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Write the Opener

Six paragraph bodies. Two need no opening.

Write an opening sentence for each paragraph. Two need none — write none for those.

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A charge adds a daily cost to every journey in. A driver compares that against a train fare, and for marginal journeys the comparison tips. Traffic thins at the hours the road was over capacity.

→

A ten-year-old given an hour of homework after a six-hour day has nothing left before bed. The time it takes is the time early development actually depends on.

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Fear of traffic is what keeps most people off bicycles. Someone who will not ride beside lorries will ride behind a kerb. Seville built eighty kilometres in four years and cycling rose elevenfold.

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A householder unsure whether a lid is recyclable guesses. One wrong item is enough to have the load rejected. The cost of that confusion falls on everyone who sorted correctly.

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Space is the second largest cost most firms carry. A firm with half its staff at home renews a lease on half the floor. The saving arrives at renewal, not in the month the policy changes.

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That gap has pushed younger workers steadily further out. The journeys they now make take an hour longer than the ones their parents made.

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Two Openers, One Paragraph

One body, two openings, and a choice.

A paragraph body is supplied. Write two possible opening sentences for it — one purely topical, one that links back and then announces the topic.

The body:

A commuter paying four pounds a day finds that comparison reversed once the fare is nothing. In Tallinn, free since 2013, car journeys into the centre fell while the population grew. The effect is largest for people whose commute already cost them most.

The previous paragraph ended on the cost of road building.

Opening A: topical only. Opening B: link back, then topic.

Then say which you would use.

Your two openings*

Label each.

Which would you use, and why?*

One sentence.

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What Did You Promise

Say what your first sentence made the reader expect.

Learners can ask follow-up questions and keep the thread going.

Read only your first sentence.

What would a reader expect to come next — and is that what you wrote?

One or two sentences.

just now

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