A proper introduction

In their introductory paragraphs students should accomplish two tasks:

1. They should get the reader's interest so that he or she will want to read more.

2. They should let the reader know what the writing is going to be about.

The second task can be accomplished by a carefully crafted thesis statement. Writing thesis statements can be learned rather quickly. The first task – securing the reader’s interest – is more difficult. It is this task that this discussion addresses.

First, admit that it is impossible to say or do or write anything that will interest everybody. With that out of the way, the question then becomes: “What can a writer do that will secure the interest of a fair sized audience?”.

Professional writers who write for magazines and receive pay for their work use five basic patterns to grab a reader’s interest:

1. historical review

2. anecdotal

3. surprising statement

4. famous person

5. declarative

Try using two or three different patterns for your introductory paragraph and see which introductory paragraph is best; it is often a delicate matter of tone and of knowing who your audience is. Do not forget, though, that your introductory paragraph should also include a thesis statement to let your reader know what your topic is and what you are going to say about that topic.

Things NOT to do in an introductory paragraph:

· Apologize. Never suggest that you do not know what you are talking about or that you are not enough of an expert in this matter that your opinion would matter. Your reader will quickly turn to something else. Avoid phrases like the following:

In my [humble] opinion...

I am not sure about this, but...

· Announce your intentions. Do not flatly announce what you are about to do in an essay.

In this paper I will...

The purpose of this essay is to...

• Get into the topic and let your reader perceive your purpose in the topic sentence of your beginning paragraph.

· Use a dictionary or encyclopedia definition.

• Although definitions are extremely useful and it might serve your purpose to devise your own definition(s) later in the essay, you want to avoid using this hackneyed beginning to an essay.

· Dilly-dally. Get to it. Move confidently into your essay. Many writers find it useful to write a warm-up paragraph (or two, even) to get them into the essay, to sharpen their own idea of what they are up to, and then they go back and delete the running start.