INTRODUCTIONS John Hill VIU Writing Centre FIVE MINUTES ON…. INTRODUCTIONS John Hill VIU Writing Centre

Introduction to introductions Students often get stuck on introductions: “I don’t know how to get started!” One thing to note is that you don’t have to start your writing process by writing your introduction. Start where you do have something to write about and build from there. It’s easy enough to move paragraphs about later. But let’s say you are ready to write your introduction. Let’s imagine we are writing an essay that is presenting research addressing the question of what constitutes the best treatment of high blood pressure. This is perhaps a paper a nursing student might write, but the structure will work for most conventional essay-type assignments

1. Opening One approach is to open your essay with a generality about your topic. EG: High blood pressure is a syndrome that contributes to a significant amount of ill-health in Canada. A good essay might then secure that generality in scholarship, adding something like the following: Smith and Jones (2009) report that B.C. alone spends $2bn annually on treating patients exhibiting this symptom.

2. Getting Specific You would then go on to introduce the specific aspect of the issue that you are dealing with. In this case what you have come to see as differences of opinion around the best way to treat this illness: However, the most effective way to treat such patients is uncertain. Various studies (Hope 2010, Wish 2009) have indicated that conventional approaches have disappointing long-term outcomes. Recent work in this area (Wang 2011, Schmidt 2012) has suggested that lifestyle changes are key to improved health.  

3. Delivering the Thesis Statement The key purpose of your introduction, in a conventional undergraduate essay, is to deliver your thesis statement (see FIVE MINUTES ON… THESIS STATEMENTS), which is the main overall point of your essay. You have prepared the ground for the position you have taken following your research, In our imaginary nursing essay it might run as follows: It is clear that treatment of high blood pressure requires a holistic approach to the patient: it is not simply a matter for medication, though a range of drugs have a role to play; rather, the health-care team also has to address questions of lifestyle, especially diet and exercise.

4. Putting it all together The completed introduction would look like this: High blood pressure is a syndrome that contributes to a significant amount of ill-health in Canada. Smith and Jones (2009) report that B.C. alone spends $2bn annually on treating patients exhibiting this symptom. However, the most effective way to treat such patients is uncertain. Various studies (Hope 2010, Wish 2009) have indicated that conventional approaches have disappointing long-term outcomes. Recent work in this area (Wang 2011, Schmidt 2012) has suggested that lifestyle changes are key to improved health. It is clear that treatment of high blood pressure requires a holistic approach to the patient: it is not simply a matter for medication, though a range of drugs have a role to play; rather, the health-care team also has to address questions of lifestyle, especially diet and exercise.

5. Important Having introduced your essay in this way, you now need to follow it with the essay that you have described. If your essay does not demonstrate the importance of combining drug treatment with lifestyle changes in order to treat high blood pressure, your reader will be confused and disappointed (and if that reader is your prof, poor grades will surely follow!).