1. The introduction to a paper is a very important section; it sets the expectations of the readers Writing Introductions

2. A good Introduction should…. attract the reader's attention. Magazine and newspaper articles often accomplish this with brief but interesting anecdotes, questions that pique the reader's curiosity, something of personal relevance to the reader, or other appropriate quotations, provocative questions, or statements. While you shouldn't feel that you have to sensationalize, neither should you assume that the reader is interested in what you have to say by default. Very often just raising the interesting issue that your thesis explores is enough to pull your reader in What’s going on in the country right now with that issue? If there is a contemporary touchstone, people are likely to pay attention.

3. A good Introduction should…. establish the significance of your point to the reader. You should convince your audience that it should care about what you have to say. It is the writer’s job to connect the issue to the readers’ concerns. People have the choice to listen to or read millions of stories every day. Why should they take the time to read yours? Unsurprisingly, people tend to pay more attention if they think the issue will impact them or someone they know in some way. Why should people care about the issue? How will it impact them?

4. For example…. A server at a restaurant was recently fired for posting a picture of a receipt with a $3 tip left by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. Brees responded by saying that it was a take out order, so he didn’t feel the need to leave a proportionate tip. If workers were paid for their work and not what people decided to leave them, this wouldn’t be an issue. With the current system, people think you’re cheap if you don’t tip a certain amounts.

5. A good Introduction should….. explicitly state the thesis (the point of the paper) to your readers. After having read the introduction, the reader should have an idea of the central point of your paper. You want to get the thesis in early so that your readers know where you are going. The intro + thesis is the frame of reference that all of the rest of the paper is viewed through. If people know that you are in favor of an increase in wages for servers, when you write, “the average tip for a server is 18% of the bill” your readers already have a good idea that you think that’s not enough.

6. What to avoid with your intro An introduction is not usually the best place to introduce background or factual information. A common impulse is to start a paper with a person’s life story or with some historical background. However, unless some brief information is necessary to understand the terms within or significance of the thesis, save the background for later in the paper. For example, if you are writing a paper about getting rid of tipping as a practice, you probably don’t need to give your readers a history of when tipping started or how it has evolved over the years. You’re better off outlining establishing reasons for why we need a “livable wage” instead of tips for severs.

7. What to avoid with you intro An introduction should not be too long. An introduction should be 1-2 paragraphs, at least for the length of papers for this class. A page-long intro is usually too long - - half a page or less is good. If your opening anecdote is a long one, you don't have to finish it in the introduction -- just introduce enough of it to get the reader's attention and establish the significance of your thesis. You can finish it in the body of the paper. You need to create a bridge from the opening to the body anyway. So, if you start with a story about a server who was fired for posting a picture of a receipt with negative comments about a customer who left a bad tip, start with a brief overview and go back to it in the body.

8. What to avoid with your intro Don't start your introduction with a dictionary definition. We're not interested in how Webster's defines “tipping." Defining “privacy” in the intro could also be a problem. These are core concepts, but you need to work with them in the body of the paper. Defining concepts is a major part of some issues, such as the “American Dream.” If that’s the case, you can begin to define it in the intro, but you are still going to have to come back to do more work in the body.

9. What to avoid with your intro Don't start out with a grand generalization. The cliché of the "pyramid form" introduction often leads to uninteresting sentences that begin with "Since the beginning of time..." or "Throughout history...". These claims are way too big. Nothing has been constant “since the beginning of time” or “throughout history.” Think, do you need to mark a time distinction? If not, don’t. Likewise, don’t say “everyone,” “all people,” “no one” or any other absolutes.

10. Write a tentative intro and outline You know where you want to go: What contemporary touchstones can you think of to draw your readers in? What ways are people likely to be impacted by your topic? How can you phrase these statements so that they aren’t absolutes? What order should the ideas go into your paper? Do some ideas have to be introduced before others so that they make sense?