Your Introduction Paragraph

When writing your introduction paragraph, you should remember the following:

1. You need to prepare the reader for what they will be reading.


2. By the end of the introduction paragraph, it should be absolutely clear what the rest of the essay is about. What will be proven?

Those are really the only "rules" for writing an introduction. What follows is a formula for accomplishing the above. You may follow the formula without penalty. But remember it is only a formula.

Formula for introduction:

• Start with an attention grabber. Some common attention grabbers are quotes, questions, startling statistics, and anecdotes. For a literary analysis, my preferences are the quotes and the anecdotes. Questions work well when doing an in-class essay. If you are using a quote, you may find one from the literary piece you are writing. Make sure it generally relates to the main idea of your essay. (1-5 sentences)


• Follow your attention grabber with specific background information about the text you are analyzing. You don't need to go into tremendous detail. Simply state the title, the author and whatever other background information might be necessary to understand your essay. The purpose of the background is to build a bridge from the attention grabber to the thesis statement. (2-4 sentences)


• Thesis. The thesis is the most important sentence in your essay. It is here that you specifically answer the question or address the prompt, and you let the reader know what point is going to be proven in the rest of the essay.

Follow this formula in this order and you will have a strong introduction paragraph. If you have any questions, hit the comment link below. Otherwise, send me an email.