Do you want your professor to feel excited when he reads your introduction paragraph? At one point or another at college and grad school, students are required to write essays. The essays can be either short and simple or voluminous research papers that require in-depth analysis. In both cases, there is a need to make your introductory paragraph great. As a result, we have crafted four steps to write a good introductory paragraph for your essay or dissertation. These steps outline the goals that the paragraph should meet.
- Catch the reader’s attention
Your introduction paragraph needs to hook the reader’s attention. The hook can be an interesting question, a declaration, or statistics. An example of a statistical hook is, “Almost two-thirds of the businesses in the world have experienced a recession due to the Corona Virus pandemic” However, it is important to note that if you use a statistical hook, you must cite your source.
- Give background on your topic.
The background information follows the attention grabber or the hook of the paragraph. It indicates the scope, the root, or the history of the topic being analyzed. The background information can be a definition of key terms, an outline of the historical, geographical, or social context, or a summary of the topic. For example, the Corona Virus Pandemic is a global health threat that was declared by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020
- Present your thesis statement.
The thesis statement is the central point of the essay. Notably, the thesis focuses on a narrowed scope of a particular topic. In short, the thesis statement is made up of one or two sentences that sum up the writer’s overall argument. The thesis statement is usually a claim that requires evidence and explanation. For example, “By causing the closure of many businesses due to the imposed lockdown measures, the coronavirus pandemic is instrumental in causing the collapse of many businesses.”
- Check and Revise
At one point or another, after researching your paper, there is a need to check and revise your introductory paragraph. There are new concepts that you may find out about a topic that can be added to the introduction. It is thus essential to check and revise your introductory paragraph when you are done with the essay.
