👋🏽 Hi, I'm Kerry. I teach CSEC English B at Arc School: live classes each week, lesson resources, exam practice and personalised coaching for the May–June 2027 exams. In this lesson, pay attention to how each opening is structured. Then write your own openings in your own words. Just don't copy my sentences into your exam answer. Your answer has to show what you think.
An opening has to do a lot in a few lines. It has to answer the question, say what you'll write about and tell the reader what you think, all before you've proved anything.
If your opening tells the story instead, the rest of the essay has nothing to prove. So in this lesson we'll look at openings that answer the question from the first sentence.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
open an essay with a clear view that answers the question
name the examples and the technique your essay will use
see what your opening has promised, so the rest of the essay can deliver it
write two different openings for the same question
The full lesson gives you six openings, each for a different real question, with what makes each one work and what the essay has to do next. Then you'll write two openings of your own.
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Grab a pen. Here's the first question.