WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Grammar Minute: The Most Important Part

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

When you're writing something new, where should you invest the most time? Learn more on today's episode of Grammar Minute!

Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language 60 seconds out of time. I'm Lauren Smith, and in any piece of writing, the place where you spend the most time should be the first sentence. Journalists often call this the lead. It's your chance to grip the reader and keep them from clicking away to another article, another email, another book. This is especially important in the age of internet gratification. If you're going to get someone's attention, you have to do it right away. So how do you write a good lead? Start by rewriting it several times.

It should be both the first and the last thing you work on. If you write a catchy sentence in the middle of your article, consider making that the lead. Any tidbit of compelling, frightening, startling, or otherwise arresting information should be placed here. The sentence should be short with no excessively long words. That's your Grammar Minute. Visit thegramminut.com for more tips and tricks.