How to write an essay introduction

Besides the conclusion, the introduction is the most important part of an essay. Seeing as this is true, you want to make sure that your introduction is as informative and well-written as possible so that you can draw the reader's attention fairly quickly and keep him or her hooked on your essay. After all, if you started reading an essay and didn't like the first part of it, how likely would you be to continue reading it? If you get a bad first impression of the piece of work, then you may decide to jump ship and give the essay a poor score: after reading this, you should be able to prevent that from happening to you.

When you start your introduction, you don't want to state your thesis immediately. True, the thesis of your essay is the main idea that the rest of the paper is based around, but you want to lead your readers into the thesis. For example, start your essay off with a short anecdote relating to one or more of your key points, such as a man walking down the street only to be cut-off by a black cat and lose his job an hour later. The thesis statement of this essay could be that certain "bad luck" charms actually work; however, this should be the last sentence of your introductory paragraph.

Don't be afraid to use a little humor. In fact, I would encourage you putting a joke or two in your introduction to "lighten" the mood for the reader. People enjoy reading things that are funny; even if the rest of your paper is serious, the readers will have gotten their laughs and continue to read on because the conclusion was light-hearted and humorous. Going back to the first suggestion, your anecdote could be something funny, such as a personal experience of yours that you may not have found funny then but you can laugh at now.

No matter what else you put in your essay, you want to set the "parameters" of your writing in the introduction. Let's say you have to make references to the central nervous system in your paper. You should write a sentence such as, "the central nervous system (CNS)" You need to establish what abbreviations, nicknames, and other potentially ambiguous terms that are being used throughout the course of your essay in the introduction. This will give your writing a lot more clarity and your readers will find one less reason to throw your work aside.

Be sure to include your thesis statement in your introduction. As mentioned before, your thesis statement should be the last sentence in your introduction; in a way, it is the "conclusion" to your introduction. A thesis is the main idea of your essay, or what it's all about, and if this isn't shown in your introduction, then your reader may be confused as to what points he or she is supposed to look for and what the "bigger picture" of your essay is.

Other than that, you should set the tone of your essay with the introduction. If your essay is going to be serious, then end your introduction on a serious note; if it's going to be a very humorous paper, then put a light-hearted spin on your thesis.