Most nonfiction writers think they're being helpful when they start with background information. You know the pattern:
Our understanding of markets has evolved over the past century. With the rise of design and use of technology, businesses now face new challenges in growth and scaling production. In this article, I'll explore a new paradigm for...
Your readers just clicked away.
By the end of this post, you'll be able to...
- Understand the problem with most introductions;
- Use a 5-part structure to establish value at the start of your essays;
- Analyze an example of this structure (from one of the most popular pieces ever published in the Harvard Business Review).
The Language of Stability and Continuity
When you read Wikipedia, do you feel engaged? Probably not—you're just scanning for information.
Now think about your favorite non-fiction writer. Completely different experience, right?
Here's why: Wikipedia is static information that just piles up. When you open with background, you're using the Wikipedia model—telling readers "Here's what you know, and now here's my idea." The information keeps piling up.
The Wikipedia model runs off stability and continuity.
But readers don't want continuity. They want tension and problems.
Most writers default to background-first because that's what school taught them. They're like a tennis player using the same pattern regardless of their opponent, or a chess player repeating the same opening moves.
Readers need to see value immediately. But background doesn't establish value—it delays it.
Instead of building from familiar ground, start with what's broken, surprising, or at stake. Don't give the reader context; give them a problem to care about.
The Value Formula
Readers perceive value when they recognize a problem.
They will see your ideas as valuable when they understand them as a solution to that problem.
The introduction to your ideas should thus create productive instability—a tension readers want resolved. This requires five elements: