What an opening line promises
Six opening lines from decision pieces. Match each to what it promises the reader.
The model · 247 words
A Decision I’m Making
I have been considering leaving the band since March, and I have not said it to anybody in it.
We started in 2016, in Rafa’s garage, and for six years I would have said it was the best thing in my week. It is now the thing I check the calendar for with a small feeling of dread. That change happened slowly enough that I cannot name the month.
On the face of it there is no decision here: I do not enjoy playing any more, so I should stop. Against that, four people have arranged their Thursdays around this for nine years, and one of them turned down a wedding gig in April because I said I could not do it.
The downside of leaving is not the guilt. It is that I have no plan for Thursdays and I suspect I would spend them badly. I would rather admit that than pretend I am leaving for some better use of the time.
What tips it is smaller. Last month I caught myself hoping a rehearsal would be cancelled, and then, when it was, I felt relieved for about four hours and flat for two days. That is not a person who wants to stop. That is a person who wants something to change and has only one lever.
So I have decided to ask for a break until January rather than to leave. All things considered, I would rather test the thing than announce it.
Four questions about the model.
1. What does the last sentence of paragraph 1 add?
2. Paragraph 3 gives the argument against leaving. Why is it stated so strongly?
3. Why does paragraph 4 refuse the guilt explanation?
4. The conclusion is not "leave" or "stay". What is it?
Repair a weaker one
The five moves of the model, in order: name it and withhold something · how it got here · the strongest objection · your own cost, honestly · what tips it, and the decision.
Below, a second piece with four sentences removed. Each removed sentence is one of those moves.
Four sentences have been removed. Put each one back where it belongs.
I have been putting off telling my parents that I am not going to finish the course. [1]
It started as a good idea and stayed one for about a year. Then the second-year modules arrived and I discovered that the part I enjoyed was the part that is not the job. [2]
[3] They are not wrong about that, and I keep trying to find an argument that makes them wrong, which is a bad sign about the argument.
What tips it is that I have started avoiding the building. [4] I would rather choose this in October than be told it in March.
Before you write
One to three words per gap. These are the sentences you are about to need.
I have been considering since the spring. On the of it the answer is obvious. Against , two people have arranged their year around it. The of my own option is that I would miss the one thing I am good at. What it is that I have stopped the emails. So I have decided for a break rather than to leave.
Five sentences from drafts of this piece. One error each — three are verb patterns, two are register.
1. I have been considering to leave since March.
2. Basically the whole thing is a bit of a mess tbh. — a written piece for a reader
3. I keep to avoid the conversation with my parents.
4. In this essay I will explain my decision and its advantages and disadvantages. — 250 words is too short to announce itself
5. I cannot afford making the same mistake twice.
Write it
Task card · Writing · Alone · 18 minutes
Write "A Decision I’m Making" — 250 words, about a decision that is genuinely still open.
Five paragraphs, the five moves, in order. Eighteen minutes of writing, then five of checking.
- Open by naming the decision and withholding one thing — who does not know, or what you have not said.
- Give the strongest argument against your own leaning, without weakening it as you write it.
- Name your own cost honestly. The unflattering version is the one that persuades.
- End with what tips it — and let it be smaller than the large arguments, because it usually is.
- Use at least six verb pairs, including two from your list of six.
Task card · Checking · Pairs · 5 minutes
Swap pieces. You are not marking. You are answering four questions in the margin.
Five minutes, four answers, written where the writer can see them.
- Circle every verb pair. Put a question mark next to any you would have written differently — not a correction.
- Which move is missing or thin? Name it by number.
- Is the objection in paragraph 3 the strongest one, or a convenient one?
- After reading, could you argue the other side better than the writer did? If yes, say so — that is the useful answer.
The one rule for checking. Do not correct verb forms. Mark them and hand them back. A writer who repairs their own pair has done the thing that stores it; a writer who receives a correction has read one.
What the margins said
Two questions.
1. Which move was thin most often across the room?
2. Of the pairs your partner question-marked, how many could you repair yourself?
Ready to say it out loud
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. Why should the deciding factor be small?
2. What happens next lesson?
Next. The same decision, spoken, to somebody who will ask the question you left out — and a look back at the whole unit.