Opening sentence

At the beginning of a written work stands the opening sentence. The opening line is part or all of the opening sentence that may start the lead paragraph. For older texts the Latin term "incipit" (it begins) is in use for the very first words of the opening sentence.

As in speech, a personal document such as a letter normally starts with a salutation; this, however, tends not to be the case in documents, articles, essays, poetry, lyrics, and general works of fiction and nonfiction. In nonfiction, the opening sentence generally points the reader to the subject under discussion directly in a matter-of-fact style. In journalism, the opening line typically sets out the scope of the article.

In fiction, authors have much liberty in the way they can cast the beginning. Techniques to hold the reader's attention include keeping the opening sentence to the point, showing attitude, shocking, and being controversial. One of the most famous opening lines, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...", starts a sentence of 118 words that draws the reader in by its contradiction; the first sentence of Yes even contains 477 words. "Call me Ishmael" is an example of a short opening sentence. Formulaic openings are generally eschewed, but expected in certain genres, such as fairy tales beginning "Once upon a time...".

Darren LaCroix

Darren LaCroix is a keynote speaker, author, comedian and founder of The Humor Institute, Inc. He is the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking.

Background

LaCroix was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and graduated from Bryant University in 1988. In college, he was influenced by his college marketing professor Frank Bingham, motivational speakers Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins and Dr. Wayne Dyer. He considers his mentors to be Dave Fitzgerald, Vinnie Favorito, Rick Segel and his own coach Patricia Fripp. LaCroix joined the Bose Speakers Toastmasters International Club to work toward being a stand-up comedian.

Career

LaCroix interviewed CEOs and business owners who made humor part of their business plan, culling from their practices, principles that could be applied to any company. He developed a technique of "customizing" humor to reveal the common frustrations and pet peeves about an organization. He also created a program "Get More Laughs By Next Week" so that others could learn humor creation processes. He is a co-founder of The Humor Institute and a co-creator of The Humor Boot Camp.

Public speaking

Public speaking (sometimes termed oratory or oration) is the process or act of performing a presentation (a speech) focused around an individual directly speaking to a live audience in a structured, deliberate manner in order to inform, influence, or entertain them. Public speaking is commonly understood as the formal, face-to-face talking of a single person to a group of listeners. It is closely allied to "presenting", although the latter is more often associated with commercial activity. Most of the time, public speaking is to persuade the audience.

Overview

In public speaking, as in any form of communication, there are five basic elements, often expressed as "who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?" The purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Good orators should not only be able to engage their audience, but also able to read them. The power of a truly great presenter is the ability to change the emotions of their listeners, not just inform them. Public speaking can also be considered a discourse community. Interpersonal communication and public speaking have several components that embrace such things as motivational speaking, leadership/personal development, business, customer service, large group communication, and mass communication. Public speaking can be a powerful tool to use for purposes such as motivation, influence, persuasion, informing, translation, or simply ethos.

World championship

A world championship is generally an international sports competition open to elite competitors from across the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport or contest.

The title is usually awarded through a combination of specific contests or, less commonly, ranking systems (e.g. the ICC Test Championship), or a combination of the two (e.g. World Triathlon Championships in Triathlon). This determines a 'world champion', who or which is commonly considered the best nation, team, individual (or other entity) in the world in a particular field, although the vagaries of sport ensure that the competitor recognised at the best in an event is not always the 'world champion' (see Underdog).

Certain sports do not have a world championship, instead they may organise a world cup competition, or they may organize both. Often, the use of the term cup or championship in this sense is just a choice of words. Some sports have multiple champions because of multiple organizations such as mixed martial arts, boxing and wrestling.

Want To

"Want To" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music duo Sugarland. It was released in August 2006 as the first single from the album Enjoy the Ride. It was their first single not to feature former member Kristen Hall, although Jennifer Nettles had previously been featured on Bon Jovi's Number One country hit, "Who Says You Can't Go Home", the song was also the first regular Number One hit of Sugarland's career in the U.S., spending two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in late 2006. The duo's members, Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, wrote the song along with Bobby Pinson. The song has sold 856,000 copies in the US as of April 2013.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

Personnel