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The Sticky Situation

It began like any other day. We came into class at 8 a.m., opened our books, and began to discuss the previous night's homework. Then, she sprung it upon us: the challenge of epic proportions, to make this class interesting to an outside reader. What was this great challenge? We were to dream up the perfect title accompanied by an introductory paragraph describing today's class. Thus, we found ourselves stuck in a sticky situation.

...It sounds better if you read it in a deep movie-preview-announcer voice, but even without such dramatic tones, don't you want to know what's going on here?

I wanted to make my freshman writing students think about methods for attracting reluctant readers, so I did the usual in-class exercise involving looking at a bunch of titles and opening lines and determining what makes them effective (or not). They agreed that it's easier to make readers care about topics that are inherently interesting or controversial, but what about a topic no one in his or her right mind would want to read about?

Hence the assignment: in groups, students had to write a title and introduction for a hypothetical essay describing today's freshman writing class. Given such a dull topic, how would they make reluctant readers care?

They did it by using vivid verbs, immersing readers in specific examples, introducing interesting questions, and generally avoiding the kinds of vague opening lines that tend to appear in freshman writing ("Education means many things to many people in society today...."). Now that they have some experience in producing interesting openings, they face the real challenge: will they be able to transfer these skills to their first major essays? Tune in next Tuesday for the thrilling conclusion of--The Sticky Situation!