Day 5 The Lead and the Ending

Summary

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We need a good lead which can induce readers to the rest and a good ending with surprise and right point.

Words and Expressions

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If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed the second sentence, your article is dead.

1 induce v. 引诱 和后面出现的“lure” 表达的是一个意思。

,...so there isn't much time for the writer to fool around.

2 fool around 鬼混 这让我一下子想到昨天第七章里的“muck about/around” 也是表达作者在写文章时不要浪费时间东拉西扯，写一些和主题无关，没有意义的东西。

I sat in a grandstand seat brought from the Polo Grounds, ..., and dutifully copied all the labels and captions that might be useful.

3 dutifully adv. 忠诚地， 这和后面“...we would faithfully trudge,...”中的“faithfully”是近义词。

，...which staked out the road we would faithfully trudge, and its subnumerals (IIa and IIb) denoting lesser paths down which we would brifely poke.

4 stake out 和 denote 在这里都是表达“明确指示”， 文章指的是我们学习写作的时候用罗马数字（I，II，III...）直接指明接下去的内容，这就不存在用什么好的句子去吸引读者读下去。

Thoughts

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Try to give that sentence an extra twist of humor or surprise, like the periodic “snapper” in the routine of a stand-up comic.

One sentence that explains the incident that the column is based on. Then a snapper to restore the easygoing tone.

"snapper"出现了两次，我查柯林斯字典指的就是一种有“锋利牙齿的鱼”，也有解释为“暴躁的人”，那在这里是比喻我们写作中要来点令人出乎意料的惊喜或想不到的幽默之处就像常规喜剧表演中突然达到高潮，然后再平复？

The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.

我一看到这句话的理解就是好的结尾应该是出乎意料又在情理之中的，最后又提到“Surprise is the most refreshing element in nonfiction writing.”这个“surprise”要怎样去定义，我认为要做到这点不容易，而且如果一定要做到“surprise”读者的话，那和之前所说的写作为自己而写，自己想写什么就先写下来不要为了去迎合读者而去写一些不是“自己”的东西矛盾吗？