The first paragraph of any essay carries the most weight. It must earn the reader’s attention before they have decided whether to stay. A good opening sentence should feel inevitable, as though no other sentence could have come first.
A section heading
The Economist house style forbids the word “this” at the start of a sentence without an antecedent noun. It is a rule worth stealing. Clarity of reference is clarity of thought.
{{< pullquote attribution=“Some Writer” >}} The reader is always right about what they found confusing, and always wrong about how to fix it. {{< /pullquote >}}
Another paragraph follows. Long-form writing differs from blog writing in one important respect: it assumes the reader has consented to spending time with an idea, not merely scanning for a fact.
A second section
The ornamental rule below marks a tonal shift without the abruptness of a heading.
After the break, the prose can reset its register. The writer can zoom out, bring in a broader context, or land the argument.