Writing Introduction Paragraphs

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Introductions act as bridges that transport your readers from their own lives into the world of your thoughts and analyses. For example, if a reader is going to understand and enjoy your paper about language and style in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, they need a transition to help them leave behind their own world and temporarily enter the British Victorian world and the life of a street urchin. By providing an introduction that helps your reader make this transition, you give your reader the tools they need to get into your topic and care about what you are saying.

Successful introductions achieve the following:

• they whet the reader’s appetite for what is coming.

• they provide the reader with the necessary information to understand the main body of the text.

• they introduce the thesis statement (or thesis question) that will be supported in the body paragraphs.

Different text types will demand different types of introductions. For example, reports or newspaper articles usually have short and functional introductions where you immediately go to the heart of the question. The start of a report could look something like this:

The purpose of this report is to investigate the reasons behind the rise in computer gaming addiction among teenagers. The report will also recommend preventive measures for computer gaming addiction.

Introductions in newspaper articles can be even shorter, often consisting of a headline and one sentence expanding on the headline:

Biden pitches 'once in a generation investment' to Congress

US President Joe Biden has laid out a sweeping investment plan for jobs, education, and social care in his first speech to a joint session of Congress.

Expository, persuasive, analytical, or personal texts, on the other hand, require a longer and less abrupt form of introduction, and this is what we will be focusing on here. In these introductions you should briefly introduce the topic and outline your key ideas. But you also need to provide context and try to hook the reader’s interest.

A good way to structure your introduction is by using a funnel technique. This means that you start broadly, introducing a ‘hook’ – an engaging statement that is devised to provoke your readers’ attention. Then narrow the focus of the essay with a few sentences stating general facts or ideas about the subject (the ‘bridge’). As you move deeper into your introduction, you gradually narrow the focus, moving closer to your thesis statement, which is usually introduced at the end of the paragraph.

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A hook is usually a sentence or a group of sentences that make people interested in your essay and engage your readers. It is something that sparks a person’s curiosity, appeals to their emotions or logic, or provokes the reader. You want whoever reads your essay to get engaged with what you are saying.

Too many essays start with ‘In this text I’m going to write about’… This is a fairly unimaginative way to introduce a topic and won't gain you many readers. Instead, try to get your readers personally involved by doing any of the following:

Open with a relevant quotation

If you choose a memorable quotation that has a clear connection to what you’re writing about, the words will do the attention-grabbing work for you. Find a quote that is in some way relevant for your topic, background information, and thesis statement.

For example, if you’re writing an essay about how language and identity is intertwined, you could start in this way:

The American poet John Ciardi once said: "Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity."

Quotations don't have to be from famous people as long as they are relevant for your topic, but remember to quote the person’s words verbatim.

Raise a question

Posing an open-ended question at the beginning of your text will often catch the reader’s attention and leave them wanting more. Do not pose yes/no questions; instead, give the reader something to think about. Make sure that it’s a question that requires that the audience reads the essay to find the answer. For example:

Why shouldn’t everyone have access to free health care?

Why is it that we continue to take Mother Nature for granted?

Open with a strong statement

Another smart way to hook the reader is to kick off your essay with a solid declaration of your argument or position. This will create a sense of urgency. The reader may not agree with you, but they will be intrigued to see how you support your assertion. For example:

Of all writers that have lived, no one has been more influential than Shakespeare.

If you want to succeed, grit and perseverance is much more important than talent.

Refer to startling statistics or surprising facts

Using statistics is a way to gain your reader’s trust by showing your expertise early, and it will reinforce the points you make in the rest of your arguments.

For example, in a research essay about the link between sleep and stress, you could begin with statistics from the American Psychological Association:

According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, 43% of all adults claim that stress has caused them to lie awake at night in the past month.

Introducing a surprising fact related to your topic at the beginning of the introduction, can also be an attention grabber:

There are more slaves in the world today than at any point in human history.

Papua New Guinea, with a population of 8.6 million, has a total of 839 languages.

Include a story or an anecdote

Depending on the nature of your essay or article, anecdotes or brief references to interesting incidents related to your topic can be an effective way to start your text. For example:

Einstein came to Princeton University in 1935 and was asked what he would require for his study. He replied: "A desk, some pads and a pencil, and a large wastebasket to hold all of my mistakes."

Below, you will find some useful phrases that you can use in an introduction, but also a list of things that you should avoid when writing the first paragraph of an essay.