Essay tasks require decent writing skills. Many students often struggle with these assignments if they lack basic knowledge on proper structure, format, and style. Luckily, our best custom paper writing service is eager to share our experience in writing student essays and papers to make you real professionals in this sphere. We can offer useful tips on the general structure of any written work as well as each of its specific components including introductions. Since introductory paragraph is not the least important part of an essay that can be left out, it deserves special attention and mastery.
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What Is It All About
A standard essay normally starts with an introduction. This constituent part serves an important function of introducing the topic of discussion. Apart from that, it must grab the readers’ attention and make them read the paper to the end. Thus, it should not be taken too light-heartedly but must be well-thought-out.
The introduction creates the first impression of the essay and leads the reader into the core topic of discussion. Therefore, it should contain only the relevant information to present the most important ideas. Normally, it is no longer than one paragraph and should not take more than 10% of the entire paper. It must be concise but specific and clear enough for the reader to get your main point. A well-structured introduction must contain:
- A hook
- Background information
- A thesis statement
Hook
To make the audience want to read the paper to the end, you must literally hook their attention. You may start your essay with a provoking question, a meaningful quote from a literary work or a saying of a famous person, an interesting but little-known fact, or even a shocking story related to the main idea of your essay. However, you should make sure that whatever your hook is, it must resonate with the target audience and be directly linked to the topic.
Background Information
After you have grabbed the reader’s interest, you need to provide the background information on the topic of discussion. Here, you may include historical facts or statistics, describe the importance of the chosen topic, or explain its causes and effects. Keep in mind that it is too early to provide any specific details. Instead, offer some basic facts that will help to outline and explain the main claim. Start with something more general, gradually narrowing it down and leading to the thesis statement.
Thesis Statement
In general terms, a thesis statement is defined as a sentence or two at the end of the introductory paragraph that presents the main argument of the essay. Basically, it is the main element not only of the introduction but of the entire paper as well. It serves as a road map for your discussion, sets its limits, and may even outline the essay’s organization. Since the entire paper revolves around this sentence, it must be very direct and informative.
Important! A thesis statement must not be confused with the purpose statement. While the latter announces what the paper is going to talk about, the former directly answers the question posed by the topic. Thus, it must state a strong argument that you will defend and support throughout the next sections of the paper. Moreover, it should present specific interpretation of the topic instead of the topic itself and make a claim that can be disputed instead of a popular fact or opinion.
How to Produce a Strong Thesis Statement
You should know that a good thesis statement is a product of a tiresome and lengthy process of intense thinking. Do not try to formulate it right after reading the assignment. To develop a really suitable and strong argument for the required topic, you need to conduct thorough research, collect all the related information, and analyze the relationships between the facts. Even after all these steps are done, you will only obtain a working variant of your thesis statement, which must remain flexible until you finish writing the paper.
To start with, it is important to consider the assignment and the requirements it sets. It may presuppose the discussion of some rather general terms and concepts or require some more specific focus for the research. Once you have defined the scope and exact terms to work with, you need to gather as many information and generate as many ideas as possible. After you have analyzed all the obtained facts and weighed all the possible sides, you can take your own stand in the question to formulate a strong thesis statement. And still, you may want to add more changes to it after you have finalized the paper.
The Final Say
All in all, a good introduction may define the success of the entire essay. Besides introducing the topic and working as a road map for the scope, flow, and structure of your paper, it also fulfills an important task of catching the audience’s attention. Start it with a hook, provide general background information on the topic, and end with a strong argument in the thesis statement, which you will defend in the subsequent sections. If the reader likes this first paragraph, be sure that they will read your paper till the end.
