An opening can be lively without making a dramatic promise. The useful question is what your intended reader wants to discover and how your first lines point towards it.
The article guidance in Cambridge B2 First Writing Made Simple emphasises an engaging introduction and relevant personal detail. This practice guide develops those ideas with an original example.
Choose a specific angle
“Learning English is important” introduces an enormous subject. “How I made use of a ten-minute bus journey” gives an article a manageable focus. The narrower angle helps you choose details and avoid a sequence of broad claims.
Original opening comparison
Vague: “There are many useful activities in the world today.”
Focused: “My bus journey used to feel like lost time. Keeping a small vocabulary notebook gave those ten minutes a purpose.”
Make the body fulfil the opening
The focused version creates an expectation: the reader will learn what the notebook contained and how it was used. Explain those details. Do not switch into an unrelated description of the bus route or a list of every study method you know.
Choose a relevant next detail
Opening: The fictional writer uses a notebook during a short commute.
Useful continuation: “I wrote one phrase with an example, covered the example and tried to make a new sentence.”
Less useful continuation: A long account of where every bus stop is located. It does not develop the study method promised by the opening.
Keep the invitation realistic
An ending can invite readers to try a manageable activity. It does not need to promise fluency in a week. Explain who might find the idea useful and let the example show its value.
Review your draft by writing its main point in one sentence. Then check whether the opening, examples and ending all serve that point. Adjust the tone to the audience in the actual task.
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Cambridge B2 First Writing — Course 2
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Source: 2 B2 first writing.epub, Jobins Training. Examples labelled original or illustrative were written for this article. Independent exam preparation; no affiliation with or endorsement by the examining body. Practice does not predict an official score.