Introduction Paragraphs

Hook ‘Em A great hook will make it almost impossible for the reader to put down the paper. Your first sentence should pull the reader in, making him or her want to read the essay because they are fascinated, intrigued, or even outraged.

“The Bridge” The bridge is the transition from your hook to your thesis statement. Continue explaining the hook, if necessary. Some types of hooks can't just be left there, or they'll wilt and die. Some hooks need explanation. Quotations and questions, especially, require explanation much of the time. How you explain the quote can affect how powerful your thesis is, and how much it makes sense.

The Bridge Continued Example 1 Hook: "'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.'" Explanation: "In his famous Stanford commencement address, Steve Jobs explained how death was an important motivator that kept him focused and helped him fearlessly innovate."

The Bridge Continued Example 2: Hook: "How often do you walk past a building and wonder what it looked like 100 years ago?" •Explanation: "Technology has allowed us to send a man to the moon, develop vaccines for ailments like polio, and — now — plumb the depths of history for visual clues to our architectural past."

State the thesis. Thesis Statement The thesis is the central message of your essay. This is your claim. A simple formula for the thesis is your claim, and the supporting details for the claim. Your thesis has a topic (your essay’s main subject), stance (your position) and plan (the direction that you will take to support your position). NOTE: The thesis statement should come at the end of the introduction for short essays (less than six pages). For essays greater than six pages, add a thesis paragraph after the introduction that contains the thesis statement and an outline of the points you are going to cover.

Mistakes to avoid when writing an introduction 1) Clichés: Dead expressions will lose the audience. 2) The Definition of a Well Known Word: High school writers love defining words in the introduction that everybody over the age of three knows. 3) The Announcement Introduction: In this description of an announcement introduction, I’m giving you an example of an announcement introduction; then I’m going to tell you how annoying the announcement introduction is and how nobody will continue reading because you just told them what they need to know. 4) The Space Alien/Future Archeologist/Time Traveler Introduction: If a future archeologist looked at this reason he would ask himself why on Earth am I so popular. This introduction type is a subset of the cliché.