Writing a Good Introduction for an Essay

 

The First Sentence: Begin your paper with a sharp and vivid illustration of the main point you'll be trying to prove in the essay.

The Epigraph: Sometimes, you might want to open the paper with an epigraph after your title. The epigraph is a short quotation that introduces an interesting idea that prompts your reader to think about your topic in a fresh way. Be sure you choose your epigraph carefully. It should not be a trite expression or a cliché and it should be written quite well. To format the Epigraph, see the example below. It should all be in double space.

Name

Dr. McFarlin

English 4 (class color)

4 March 2005

Title

"Epigraph" (centered)

—author name (this line should be right margin justified) (Do not use an anonymous source for epigraph)

The context for your thesis: After you have provided a vivid opening for your paper in an illustration that shows the idea of your paper, then begin to provide the context for your thesis. This context should be the author's context, not your own. If you're writing about madness in Hamlet, you would need to provide some information from literary history about how madness had been used before Shakespeare uses it or some information from social history about how madness was regarded in the Renaissance era. You would need to show the context and then indicate how Shakespeare commented upon it in Hamlet, how he diverged from it or how he continued its line of thought.

What not to include: Do not include quotations from the text you're studying that require analysis. The introduction is not an analytical paragraph. It's there to set up your argument, which you will then prove in body paragraphs that do analysis of text.

The line of thought leading to your thesis: Generally, in your introduction paragraph, you're laying the foundation for your argument. You need a clear, step-by-step line of argument that leads up to your argument. Make sure your sentences link logically one after the other and make sure you don't make any big leaps in thought rather than showing your steps along the way.

The thesis: Your thesis must be the overall argument of the paper. It should provide a clear sense of focus for the argument. That means it can't be a mere list of elements you'll cover. It's fine to give that list, but it's even better to write a strong enough thesis that the elements can wait to be introduced in the topic sentences. In evaluating a strong thesis, judge whether it's substantive, sophisticated in theory, unique to your own idea of the text, and unified in focus.