Introductions: The First Paragraph in Your Essay

1
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.

2
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)

3
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.

4
Anecdote (brief story or incident)

• Personal stories are naturally interesting. They
  appeal to a readers curiosity. Inyour
  introduction, an anecdote will grab the readers
  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.

5
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?

6
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 elses voice to your own.

7
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!

8
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.