That's the feeling (sense of achievement) I had in the course of work on The Sunday Times last night. I believe I came up with a good crop of "intros" (opening paragraph/paragraphs) while I was editing reporters' copy. I especially liked these three examples:
Bin there, done that.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) had carried out a year-long study into whether more trash bins, and other means such as "Do not litter" messages, worked as intended in nudging people to not litter in public places. Interestingly, for example, more bins worked but when these additional bins were then removed, more litter than before was strewn!
A story like this needed a good, teasing, intro... hence my "Bin there, done that."
On one level, it was a play on the slang expression "Been there, done that". It is not easy to educate people who don't care to not litter, so this intro prepares the reader for both encouraging as well as discouraging results, ie there will be initiatives that had been tried previously, without success.
On another level, I used "bin" as a verb, and making the intro an exhortation. So, "(please) Bin there (where the bin is). (Having) done that (ie making the effort to walk to the bin, you would have taken a step towards creating a non-littering culture). Memo to NEA: Feel free to use it as one of your anti-littering slogans!
The mosquitoes seemed to be winning the skirmishes... but...
This next story was at first written up as an ordinary report about how the minister, speaking at an event, rattled off facts and figures to show how this year's dengue outbreak nearly became worse than last year's. I decided -- in tweaking it -- to use a "war zone" imagery in the intro:
The mosquitoes seemed to be winning the skirmishes, claiming three lives, but Singapore's anti-dengue fight this year is headed towards a better-than-expected close.
The upbeat "general" -- Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan -- gave this field report yesterday.
[Actually, I had used "mozzies" in the intro, to keep to the story's slightly offbeat tone. After all, the NEA itself uses this word too. But some humourless sub changed it to "mosquitoes".]
[Man] promises not to bite, even as he bares his 'fanged' teeth...
This is a Halloween story. To "sex" it up, I took the straightforward description by the reporter of a hotel staffer dressing up partly as Dracula and played up the imagery with reference to, yes, those trademark teeth! As tweaked:
Hotel customer relations assistant manager Karlson Kim promises not to bite, even as he bares his "fanged" teeth tomorrow [ie on Monday, 31 Oct, Halloween Day].
The Royal Plaza on Scotts staff member will just be indulging in the Halloween mood -- decked out in a Phantom of the Opera and Dracula-themed costume.
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So, there! I've blown my own trumpet in this posting.
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