If any farmer anywhere in the United States will look up the fire insurance policy on his farm building, and will read it carefully, in nine cases out of ten, he will find tucked away somewhere therein a clause exactly like the one quoted above, or practically in the same words.

BEGINNING WITH A QUESTION.  Every question is like a riddle; we are never satisfied until we know the answer.  So a question put to us at the beginning of an article piques our curiosity, and we are not content until we find out how the writer answers it.

Instead of a single question, several may be asked in succession.  These questions may deal with different phases of the subject or may repeat the first question in other words.  It is frequently desirable to break up a long question into a number of short ones to enable the rapid reader to grasp the idea more easily.  Greater prominence may be gained for each question by giving it a separate paragraph.

Rhetorical questions, although the equivalent of affirmative or negative statements, nevertheless retain enough of their interrogative effect to be used advantageously for the beginning of an article.

That the appeal may be brought home to each reader personally, the pronoun “you,” or “yours,” is often embodied in the question, and sometimes readers are addressed by some designation such as “Mr. Average Reader,” “Mrs. Voter,” “you, high school boys and girls.”

The indirect question naturally lacks the force of the direct one, but it may be employed when a less striking form of beginning is desired.  The direct question, “Do you know why the sky is blue?” loses much of its force when changed into the indirect form, “Few people know why the sky is blue”; still it possesses enough of the riddle element to stimulate thought.  Several indirect questions may be included in the initial sentence of an article.

    QUESTION BEGINNINGS

    (1)

    (Kansas City Star)

    TRACING THE DROUTH TO ITS LAIR

What becomes of the rainfall in the plains states?  This region is the veritable bread basket of our country; but in spite of the fact that we have an average rainfall of about thirty-six inches, lack of moisture, more frequently than any other condition, becomes a limiting factor in crop production.  Measured in terms of wheat production, a 36-inch rainfall, if properly distributed through the growing season and utilized only by the crop growing land, is sufficient for the production of ninety bushels of wheat an acre.  The question as to what becomes of the rainfall, therefore, is of considerable interest in this great agricultural center of North America, where we do well if we average twenty-five bushels to the acre.

    (2)

    (New York Evening Sun)

    WE WASTE ONE-QUARTER OF OUR FOOD

If a family of five using twenty-five bushels of potatoes a year at $2 a bushel, lose 20 per cent on a bushel by paring, how much has the family thrown into the garbage can during the year?  Answer, $10.  Applying this conservative estimate of dietitians to other foods, the average family might save at least $100 a year on its table.

    (3)