Introductions: The First Paragraph in Your Essay  Four purposes (functions) of an introduction 1. Attracts the readers’ attention (opening statements) 2. Provides additional background information about your essay (connecting sentences) 3. It presents the thesis statement (the most important part of the essay) 4. It indicates a plan of development (parallel structures), to organize your body paragraphs in a specific order or in order of importance.

Opening Statements (6)  General to Specific  Anecdote or brief story  Question (ask one or more questions)  Quotations (citations)  Warning (explaining the importance of topic)  Opposite (irony or paradox technique)

General to Specific  Broad general statements ease the reader into your thesis statement by first introducing the topic in general and then narrowing it down to a specific point –your thesis statement Example: Shopping malls in Puerto Rico are crowded with different kinds of people.

Anecdote (brief story or incident)  Personal stories are naturally interesting. They appeal to a reader’s curiosity. Inyour introduction, an anecdote will grab the reader’s attention right away. The story should be brief and should be related to your main idea. This could be something that happened to you, to someone you know, something you have heard, or something you have read about.

Questions  You may simply want the reader to think about possible answers, or you may plan to answer the questions yourself later in the paper. Examples: What is love? Do you believe in God? Have your ever lied to someone?

Quotations  A quotation can be something you have read in a book or an article. It can also be something that you have heard: a popular saying or a proverb (“ Never give advice to a friend”), a current or recent advertising slogan (“Puerto Rico does it better”).  Using a quotation gives credibility to your essay by adding someone else’s voice to your own.

Warning (Importance of topic)  If you can convince your readers that the subject in some way applies to them, or is something they should know more about, they will want to keep reading! Example: If you drink tonight, you will probably die!

Opposite (irony or paradox)  Start with an idea or a situation that is the opposite of the one you will develop.  This approach works because your readers will be surprised, and then intrigued, by the contrast between the opening idea and the thesis that follows it. Example: I love driving in the roads and streets of Puerto Rico.