Writing a good essay introduction

Go ahead and add an anecdote about a person who was injured while riding a roller coaster. Are you writing an essay about Moby Dick? Perhaps an anecdote about that time your friend read Moby Dick and hated it is not the best way to go.

The same is true for statistics, quotes, and other types of information about your topic. Starting your essay with a definition is a good example of one of these conventions. At this point, starting with a definition is a bit boring, and will cause your reader to tune out. If you are having trouble with your intro, feel free to write some, or all, of your body paragraphs, and then come back to it.

Convince the reader that your essay is worth reading. Your reader should finish the introduction thinking that the essay is interesting or has some sort of relevance to their lives. A good introduction is engaging; it gets the audience thinking about the topic at hand and wondering how you will be proving your argument.

Good ways to convince your reader that your essay is worthwhile is to provide information that the reader might question or disagree with. Once they are thinking about the topic, and wondering why you hold your position, they are more likely to be engaged in the rest of the essay. The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's attention and give her an idea of the essay's focus.

Begin with an attention grabber. The attention grabber you use is up to you, but here are some ideas: Startling information This information must be true and verifiable, and it doesn't need to be totally new to your readers.

It could simply be a pertinent fact that explicitly illustrates the point you wish to make. If you use a piece of startling information, follow it with a sentence or two of elaboration.

Anecdote anecdote is a story that illustrates a point. Be sure your anecdote is short, to the point, and relevant to your topic. This can be a very effective opener for your essay, but use it carefully. Dialogue An appropriate dialogue does not have to identify the speakers, but the reader must understand the point you are trying to convey. Restating the question can sometimes be an effective strategy, but it can be easy to stop at JUST restating the question instead of offering a more specific, interesting introduction to your paper.

Example: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass discusses the relationship between education and slavery in 19th century America, showing how white control of education reinforced slavery and how Douglass and other enslaved African Americans viewed education while they endured.

Moreover, the book discusses the role that education played in the acquisition of freedom. Education was a major force for social change with regard to slavery. This introduction begins by giving the dictionary definition of one or more of the words in the assigned question. Anyone can look a word up in the dictionary and copy down what Webster says. If you feel that you must seek out an authority, try to find one that is very relevant and specific.

Perhaps a quotation from a source reading might prove better? Dictionary introductions are also ineffective simply because they are so overused.

This kind of introduction generally makes broad, sweeping statements about the relevance of this topic since the beginning of time, throughout the world, etc. It is usually very general similar to the placeholder introduction and fails to connect to the thesis.

Instructors often find them extremely annoying. Example: Since the dawn of man, slavery has been a problem in human history. The book report introduction. This introduction is what you had to do for your elementary school book reports. It gives the name and author of the book you are writing about, tells what the book is about, and offers other basic facts about the book. It is ineffective because it offers details that your reader probably already knows and that are irrelevant to the thesis.

It was published in by Penguin Books. In it, he tells the story of his life. And now for the conclusion… Writing an effective introduction can be tough.

Try playing around with several different options and choose the one that ends up sounding best to you! Just as your introduction helps readers make the transition to your topic, your conclusion needs to help them return to their daily lives—but with a lasting sense of how what they have just read is useful or meaningful. Works consulted We consulted these works while writing the original version of this handout.

Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

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The role of introductions

In academic settings, help are typically communicated using formal types of writing such as essays. Most academic essays contain an introductory paragraph, which includes a thesis. Also, the corresponding part of a speech, lecture, etc. Once application essay sample college had suffered through writing dozens of painful introductions, she decided to look up some tips on how to introduce your essay, and after that she got a lot better. Introductions can revise tricky. Because the introduction is the first portion of essay essay that the reader encounters, the stakes are fairly high for your introduction to be successful.

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A great essay needs a strong scaffold

Parts of Essay Learning how to write an essay introduction may seem the best start for any student who is struggling with his academic task. This is true regarding the purpose of this brief but solid starting paragraph. Use your imagination multiplied by skill. It is a beginning paragraph that sets tone and path for the entire paper you are going to present to your reader. Signposting is giving cues to a reader so they know where they are orientated in your essay. The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's attention and give her an idea of the essay's focus.

Key elements of an introduction

This means that your readers know what you will argue in the remainder of your essay. An essay is our opinion on the text, this is reflected in any statement we make. And now for the conclusion… Writing an effective introduction can be tough.

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If you feel that you must seek out an authority, try to find one that is very relevant and specific. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Don't stop just yet! In it, he tells the story of his life. Dictionary introductions are also ineffective simply because they are so overused.

What is an Introduction in an Essay

The role of introductions Introductions and conclusions can be the most difficult parts of papers to write. Usually when you critical thinking group activities down to respond to an assignment, you have at least some sense of what you want to say in the body of your paper. Essay your readers pick up your paper about education in the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, good example, they need a transition to help essay leave behind the world of Chapel Hill, television, e-mail, and Writing Daily Tar Heel and to help them temporarily enter the revise of nineteenth-century American slavery. By providing an introduction that helps your readers make a transition between their own world and the issues you will help writing about, you give your readers the tools they need to get introduction your topic and care about what you are saying. See our handout on conclusions.

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