Throat-Clearing Intros: Three Sentences Before the Point
A throat-clearing intro sets a generic scene — the fast-paced world, the ever-evolving landscape, the rhetorical question — before anything specific happens. Readers decide whether to stay within seconds; the warm-up spends them on nothing.
Why AI writes it: Models learn essayistic openings as the polite way to begin. Without a specific fact to open with, the generic scene-setter is always available — and always portable.
See it flagged live
Before & after
Before
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After
Adults need 7–9 hours of sleep; most get 6.
Before
Let's face it: hiring is hard. In this article, we'll explore why.
After
We interviewed 60 candidates to make one hire. Here's what the funnel looked like.
How to fix it
- 1Open with your most concrete fact, number, or claim.
- 2Delete any first sentence that could open an article on a different topic.
- 3Turn rhetorical questions into their answers.
Related patterns
Frequently asked questions
▸When does SlopTrim delete the whole intro paragraph?
When the opening paragraph contains a warm-up phrase or dense fluff and zero hard facts, the trim action removes the whole block; if facts appear later in the paragraph, only the fluffy first sentence goes.