In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Stanley Fish, a professor at Florida International University, grabbed readers by the collar with the\u00a0importance of first sentences.<\/p>\n

Here’s the situation he posits.\u00a0 You’re at the mystery section of an airport bookstore.\u00a0 You hear\u00a0last call for your flight.\u00a0 You have about five minutes to choose a book.\u00a0 How do you make a choice?<\/p>\n

Look at the back cover?\u00a0 No, because it’s hype, written by an advertising guy paid to sell the book.<\/p>\n

How about the blurbs?\u00a0 No, because famous authors often praise other books in publisher’s lists to do the publisher a favor and increase the likelihood of getting their next book published.<\/p>\n

The only thing left is to read the first sentence.<\/p>\n

Professor Fish quotes a few doozies.\u00a0 “He cut through the morning rush-hour crowd like a shark fin through water.”\u00a0 No thanks.<\/p>\n

“Brianne Parker didn’t look like a bank robber or a murderer–her pleasantly plump baby face fooled everyone.”\u00a0\u00a0 Too cliche!<\/p>\n

“Some stories wait to be told.”\u00a0 Too pretentious!<\/p>\n

Time is running out.\u00a0 You open another book.\u00a0 “Stromose was in high school when he met the boy who would someday murder his wife and son.”\u00a0 Pretty good, but too self-conscious–especially that name.<\/p>\n

And then Professor Fish finds the real thing.\u00a0 “Joel Campbell, eleven years old at the time, began his descent into murder with a bus ride.”\u00a0 The name isn’t too fictional.\u00a0 “Eleven years old at the time” takes away the seriousness.\u00a0 And “with a bus ride” is not self-consciously clever, but matter of fact.\u00a0 It deepens the mystery.<\/p>\n

How do you begin your presentations<\/strong>?\u00a0 Do you work on your opening to create drama, tension, or mystery?\u00a0 Or do you play it safe, and tell them what you’re going to tell them?<\/p>\n

How many yawning executives snap to attention when you utter your first sentence?\u00a0 How many people look forward to hearing you speak?<\/p>\n

We are all rushing to catch a plane.\u00a0 Our ability to catch\u00a0attention<\/strong> is key to our success.<\/p>\n