The most important part of a piece of writing is the lead, whether it is a sentence, a few sentences, or a paragraph. Leads hold the reader’s attention, giving them incentive to continue reading. They can be any length, depending on the purpose of the writing. An academic paper will have a longer lead than an article because more information needs to be set up at the same time as hooking the reader.

There is an expectation to stick with the writer through the whole first paragraph so you can see their whole point. With a news article, readers are not as willing to stick with the writer and are more likely to move on if the opening paragraph is too long.

As a reader, I know that in certain situations I am willing to read longer articles. Such as when reading an academic or scientific article. For example, I found an article about a perfectly preserved saber-toothed tiger cub that was found in permafrost in Siberia back in 2020. That is a very interesting topic, so I read the full article. If I had not read the full article, even just the first two sentences would have been enough information:

“For the first time, scientists have recovered the mummified, frozen body of a juvenile saber-toothed cat from the Arctic permafrost in Siberia. Despite being over 35,000 years old, the sub-zero temperatures have kept the specimen in a remarkable state of preservation, with its fur, head, torso, and limbs still intact.”

Since it is a scientific article, the two first sentences are long. This might lose the attention of some readers, but a reader who isn’t going to stick around a few long first sentences is not going to stay for a long scientific article. There is no right way to hook every reader, since every reader is different. National Public Broadcast suggests a few different ways to set up an article (2016):

• Straight News Lead: reporting the facts as they are, especially if there’s something interesting. This will lead the reader to know exactly what the writing will be about. Even if they don’t continue reading past this point, the reader will still walk away with the main idea of the article.
• Anecdotal lead: using a story example to open an article. This tells the reader what the article is about right away. It keeps the reader’s attention in a more detailed way.
• Scene setting lead: describing the event that happened as if the writer was there. It draws in the reader by immersing them in the event.

With the saber-toothed tiger cub article, they used a straight news lead since it was a long article. Any of these types of leads can work, depending on the piece of writing and readers. It is up to the writer to figure out which lead strategy will work best for their purpose in writing.

Bloch, H. (2016, October 18). A good lead is everything – here’s how to write one. NPR. https://training.npr.org/2016/10/12/leads-are-hard-heres-how-to-write-a-good-one/.