Writing the first line of a message to a stranger

The opening sentence does the same work as a greeting, with none of the help that a face provides.

The hardest sentence in most messages is the first one, and people spend more time on it than on everything that follows. This is not procrastination. The opening line is doing the whole job of a greeting: establishing that you have noticed this person, proposing a level of formality, and signalling how much of their time you are about to ask for. In person, tone of voice and a face carry most of that load. In writing there is nothing but word choice, and every choice is visible and permanent in a way that a spoken hello never is.

The common failure is trying to do too much. An opening that is too warm to a stranger asks for a closeness that has not been offered, and reads as either presumptuous or as the prelude to a request. An opening that is too cool reads as a form letter and invites the reader to treat you as one. Between them sits a plain, unfussy line that names the person properly, says who you are in a few words, and states why you are writing. It is not stylish, but it makes the reader's decision easy, which is the actual courtesy on offer.

The other thing an opening line should do is release the reader from obligation. A message that assumes a reply, or that arrives with an unstated expectation of speed, puts a small weight on somebody who did not ask for it. A message that says plainly what would be useful and leaves the choice with the reader is easier to answer and is answered more often. Politeness in writing to a stranger is mostly a matter of reducing what they have to work out before they can decide what to do with you.