1. Common structures To inform your audience
Introductions
Common structures
To inform your
audience

2. Introductions
A good introduction encourages readers to read your report with interest and prepares them to understand it better.

3. Content Goal
I can apply this paragraph structure to an introduction for one of my own papers.

4. 3-Part Construction
While introductions are different lengths they usually contain three logical parts:
Common Ground/Opening Context
Problem: Something different
Response: Thesis

5. Opening Context Establishing common ground with reader
A shared understanding with the reader
Example:
The Great Depression was a lean time economically for most people, many of whom lost money, home, and class status. The people who were already impoverished had nowhere to go but the bottom, often homelessness. John Steinbeck writes about similar harsh realities in his famous and beloved book, Of Mice and Men.

6. The Problem
You have a new twist or a new way to look at an issue due to
The audience’s incomplete knowledge or understanding of the topic
Example:
Even though Steinbeck offers the reader a compassionate story about men coping with the losses of money, dreams, and dignity, he does not extend that empathy to women.

7. Thesis
Your analysis of the problem in your topic you’ve chosen to take on
The thesis of a persuasive essay is a claim that is an opinion about that topic that is narrow, arguable, and supportable.

8. Introduction con’t Thesis Your take! Your solution!
Convince your audience by showing how important it is.

9. Thesis Example
Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is sexist because of the negative, objectified, limited portrayal of one woman (and only one), who deserves a more compassionate depiction, instead of just being a problem for the male characters.

10. Sample Introduction
The Great Depression was a lean time economically for most people, many of whom lost money, homes, and class status. The people who were already impoverished had nowhere to go but the bottom, often homelessness. John Steinbeck writes about similar harsh realities in his famous and beloved book, Of Mice and Men. Even though Steinbeck offers the reader a compassionate story about men coping with the losses of money, dreams, and dignity, he does not extend that empathy to women. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is sexist because of the negative, objectified, limited portrayal of one woman (and only one), who deserves a more compassionate depiction, instead of just being a problem for the male characters.

11. Your Introduction Common Ground
Background on the American Dream and how it has changed.
Introduce the novels and their involvement in the American Dream
Problem
Misconceptions of the topic that you want to address.
Background on the American Dream, starting with the Puritan Dream and its transition through the Declaration of Independence to the Dream of a Home.

12. Introduction
Thesis
Problem to Solve
Common Ground