WORD FOR THE DAY "grabber" (n.) 1. a person or thing that grabs; 2. Slang. Something attention-getting or sensational; 3. a mechanical device for gripping objects; etc." Root. "grab" 1. to seize hold of something; 2. to arrest; catch; etc. (dictionary.com) Example: "Make the first sentence of your written piece a grabber."

Seize readers' attention with five "grabber" suggestions

Duller than dull? Cliched? Inaccessible? You have three to 10 seconds to capture and keep a reader's attention. So, don't blow it through your own lack of attention to techniques guaranteed to help your writing gain interest. Here are a few suggestions for creating effective grabbers:

1. Choose vivid words or phrases. Remember, "it's" and "there is," "there's," "there are" are NOT memorable starters.

2. Experiment with approaches. Challenge or make an outrageous statement, or raise a question. Also, a play-on-words or alliteration can pique curiosity. Humor is great, but people respond to the attempt in various ways. What you think is a hoot, others may find offensive.

3. Keep the sentence short.  Short sentences - seven words or less - tend to have energy. Readers get bogged down in multisyllabic words. Often, those words don't sound as sincere as plain speech. So, KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid.)

4. Use subject / verb construction. Beware of the "prepositional parade," a label coined by Dr. Richard Andersen, author of "Powerful Business Writing Skills." Here's an example: "On a ragged shoreline across a placid lake and along a tract of cattails below an old boathouse lived a cranky mallard." Two prepositional phrases MAXIMUM.

5. Plain English, please.  This speaks to #4. Avoid jargon, buzzwords, and cliches.

Interesting, vivid, and personal language that is free of jargon and long linking phrases is your goal when writing an intriguing introductory sentence meant to GRAB the interest of your readers.

(Here are a few cliches I considered for the beginning of this short article: "Stop them in their tracks; say it like you mean it; snooze, you lose." All would have been appropriate but grossly overused.)