LEAD STRATEGIES FOR AN ESSAY Writing an Introduction

DESCRIPTION Use your five senses to paint a picture for the reader. Examples: Ashes filled the air around the campfire and roasting marshmallows melted into the orange glow. Crust that tastes like wet cardboard covered with a slimy rubber they like to call cheese, I dreadfully await another meal in the school’s cafeteria.

OPEN-ENDED QUESTION Get your reader thinking about your issue or topic. Examples: How can schools help students develop healthier eating habits? What if we were never given any choices?

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Use a comparison in the form of a simile or a metaphor. Simile – comparing two opposite things using like or as Metaphor – comparing two opposite things without using like or as Example: The media is like a pack of wild hyenas competing for a carcass. The hallways are a sea of piranhas attacking their hunger.

ANECDOTE (story) Share a brief personal experience that relates to your issue. Example: Cardboard pizza again! I exit the lunch line, fast. Cutting through students and avoiding security, I hear the vending machines call my name. I press A6 and await the giant corkscrew to delicately turn to the right, releasing my snack from its grasp. As my treasure plummets its way towards freedom, the growl in my stomach fades. I have my Hot Cheetos.

QUOTATION Try a voice other than your own to get the reader thinking Examples: Thoreau encouraged people to “step to the beat of their own drummers however measured or far away.” It has been said, “You are what you eat.”

After the Lead Thesis Statement – Persuasive Briefly answers the questions:  What is my opinion on the subject?  What am I going to argue/illustrate in this essay? CREATE ONE STRONG STATEMENT BASED ON YOUR ANSWERS. ONLY ONE SENTENCE!

After the Lead Thesis Statement – Persuasive Steps to writing a thesis statement: 1. Subject 2. Three Major Points 3. Focus with generalized reason 4. Thesis Statement CREATE ONE STRONG STATEMENT BASED ON YOUR ANSWERS. ONLY ONE SENTENCE! 1. Subject: Should schools have vending machines. 2. Three Major Points: 1. Tardy to class 2. Disrupts class time 3. Students roaming the hallway 3. Focus: No, interferes with the educational environment 4. Thesis Statement: Vending machines interfere with the educational environment. Vending machines interfere with the educational environment by increasing student tardiness, class disruption, and hallway interference.

After the Thesis Statement Transition the reader smoothly into your three examples  Serve as a kind of summary of the examples that support your position  Explain and describe your three examples Persuasive Essay

And Finally… Acknowledge the counter-argument  Briefly prove that the other side is wrong  “Even though some say…” Persuasive Essay

Introduction Check Persuasive Introduction: Lead – attention grabber Thesis statement Explain three supporting examples Acknowledge the counter-argument