THE INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

 All writers (even professionals) complain that the most difficult part of writing is getting started.  How many times have you wasted valuable minutes during an essay examination trying to think of your first sentence?  Getting started, or writing an introduction, can be easy if you remember that an introduction has four purposes:

 1.                    It introduces the topic of the essay.

2.                    It gives a general background of the topic.

3.                    It often indicates the overall “plan” of the essay.

4.                    It should arouse the reader’s interest in the topic.

The Introduction has two parts :

I.                     General statements

II.                   A thesis statement

___________________________________

Notice the two parts of the following introductory paragraph.

Model 1: The introductory paragraph

Introduction              A person born in the twentieth century has seen a lot of changes take place in almost all areas of human life.  Some people are excited by the challenges that these changes offer; others want to return to the simpler, less automated life style of the past.  Living in the twentieth century has certain advantages such as a higher standard of living, but it also has some disadvantages such as a polluted environment, the depersonalization of human relationships, and the weakening of spiritual values.

                               The first sentence in an introductory paragraph should be a very general comment about the subject.  Its purpose is to attract the reader’s attention and to give background information on the topic.  Each subsequent sentence should become more specific than the previous one and finally lead into the thesis statement.

General stataments :

I.                     introduce the topic of the essay

II.                   give background information on the topic.

The thesis statement is the most important sentence in the introduction.  It states the specific topic and lists the major subtopics that will be discussed in the body of the essay.  Furthermore, it often indicates the method of organization such as chronological order, or order of importance.

The thesis statement:

1.        states the main topic.

2.        lists the subdivisions of the topic.

3.        may indicate the method of organization of the entire paper.

4.        carries the writer’s opinion on the topic.

5.        is usually the last sentence in the introductory paragraph.

BACK