Tips on Writing an Essay Introduction

Publication Date: 20 Dec 2017

An introduction of your essay is the first thing that your readers see, so it has a big impact on the success of your entire essay. This is a reason why successful writers pay special attention to the introduction, and spend enough time and effort, writing creative and catchy hooks.

What an essay hook is? It’s a first sentence of your text. It may be an interesting fact, or a quote from a well-known source. You can also tell a joke, which is a great way to get readers’ attention, and make them want to read further. However, your hook depends on a topic of the essay, and on its style. Then you have to provide readers with necessary information that helps them understand the background of your essay. Make sure that you introduced all specific features of your topic, but don’t make the introduction too long. Here you must also introduce your thesis statement, and explain how it answers the question, or how it solves the problem of your topic.

As we mentioned above, you have to clarify the context of your work, in other words, readers must understand your thesis, as well as how your statement is related to the topic, and why it’s provable. You may write some facts that are not included in the body of your essay, in case they illustrate your thesis.

Outline

Actually, there are many writing approaches for introductions. Many writers even write this first section only when the whole essay is finished, because then you will perfectly understand the structure of your essay, and what arguments are most important, so you could write the introduction based on it. It’s a good method, and you can try it, but it’s not necessarily to write the whole essay. You can just draw up an outline, which is a useful thing by itself. This blueprint will help you understand what is worth mentioning at the beginning, and what isn’t really important.

Thesis Statement

Don’t forget that your thesis statement is the essence of the entire essay. This is your point, and it must be clear, unique, and persuasive. Your statement must motivate readers to read more, no matter do they agree with you or not. Once you introduced your thesis statement, you have to make a transition to the body part, because the thesis statement is often the last sentence of your introduction. You can follow such an approach or not, but make sure that first sentences of the essay body are logically related to the last words of the introduction. However, going straight from your thesis statement to the first argument will make your thesis look stronger, and you won’t losereaders’ attention.

Your thesis statement not only summarizes your claims, it determines the way how you present information. It is called an “angle”, and good essays always have an expressed writing “angle”. To make your essay good, we suggest you to write your thesis before you start writing the introduction. It will be the best guideline for it. Don’t forget that a thesis isn’t a fact. It’s your point, and readers must be able to discuss it. It must be a thought that needs to be proven with arguments and facts.

Think About Your Audience

You must be able to estimate your audience and take it into account during the entire writing process. Think which facts may be useful for your readers, and what they may not know about your topic. Your main goal is to make your readers get your message clearly, understanding all necessary details.