1. English 8 January 28, 2014 1

2. Catch the reader’s attention. Give a Goldilocks overview (not too much, not too little information). Make the reader want to read more Usually be 4-6 sentences long (in a 1-2 page paper). State your thesis. 2

3. Ask an interesting question Tell an anecdote or short story Quote an expert Give an interesting or surprising fact or statistic 3

4. Ask a boring question: “Did you know…” “Have you ever wondered…” Tell a long or unrelated story Give a definition Put too many facts, especially if they’re listed “In this paper…” “I am going to tell you…” 4

5. Wrap up the information for your reader Make the reader think Echo the paper itself Signal the ending of the paper 5

6. Finish the story from the intro (if you used one) Challenge the reader to do something Answer the question, “So what?” or “What now?” What should change? Why does your reader care about what you wrote? 6

7. Repeating the introduction “So now you know about…” “That’s all I have to say about…” “What do you think about…?” Just stopping Adding new information 7