Whether you’re writing an essay for school, a web article, or a professional report, you should start with a good introduction. Why? Think about your own experience as a reader. If the first two or three sentences don’t catch your eye, will you continue reading? It’s not nice! Without a solid introduction, you’ll turn the page to the next article, navigate to the next site, or take the next pitch. So, if you want your writing to do its job, you need to start with a solid introduction. Here are five steps to help you do it.
1. Don’t neglect the pre-writing process.
Pre-writing should take up the majority of your time as a writer, unless you have a lot of experience with what you are writing (and even then, your writing will be much stronger if you go through the pre-writing process). . Prewriting starts with research, research, research. You want to do more research than you think you need, and then after thinking you’ve definitely done enough research, do some more research. After researching, come the steps to form a general thesis, then a general outline, then your first draft. There’s a lot more to say before writing, but for now, stick to those four steps: Research, Thesis, Outline, Draft. As you will see below, you cannot write an introduction without a thesis, and you cannot write an introduction without knowing where your report will go after your thesis. My advice? Write your introduction last!
2. Your thesis is the star of the show.
If your report were a debutante ball, all the effort involved in organizing the party would be the process prior to writing; the environment, the music, the assistants, the fruit punch, etc. they would be the body of your report; but the debutante itself would be your thesis. She may be just one person out of hundreds of guests, but all the other guests are there for her – she is the star of the show. The job of your introductory paragraph or introductory section is to present your thesis. Therefore, your entire introduction should be based on your thesis.
No matter what your thesis is, your introduction must perform certain tasks, which are now listed below.
3. Present a problem and then solve it with your thesis.
For example, if you are writing about the new and improved mousetrap you have invented and want to sell, your thesis might be, “My mousetrap is better than all the mousetraps on the market today.” Your introduction, then, should begin by stating that there is a problem with the existing mousetraps.
So your first sentence could be,
“Nobody likes having mice in their home, but unfortunately most mouse traps don’t kill mice effectively” (the problem).
If the first sentence or paragraph of your introduction presents a problem, the following sentences should begin to guide the reader to solve the problem. Continuing with the mousetrap example, your next sentences might say:
“In a traditional mousetrap, mice often eat cheese without being caught.” (This is what is wrong with existing traps.) “My mousetrap contains cheese inside a hatch, which the mouse automatically activates upon entering the trap. The mouse is trapped inside, along with the cheese.” (Wow, your mousetrap sounds like an upgrade!) “So my mousetrap is better than all the mousetraps on the market today.”
5. Once you have expressed your thesis, tell your reader what else they will learn when they read your report.
Do you remember learning the five paragraph essay in high school? There were some parts of this writing format that were horrendous and should never have been taught to unsuspecting poor high school students. However, there are parts of this writing method that are useful and that I still use today. One of them is: tell your reader what you are going to say, say it and tell them you said it. Now, in some writing philosophies, you tell your reader what your report is about before you get to the thesis, and your thesis is the last sentence of your introduction. I personally don’t like this method. I prefer to present my thesis and then give my reader a reason to read the rest of the report. Using the mousetrap example again, after stating your thesis, you could continue by telling the reader how you will demonstrate that your mousetrap is the best in a second introductory paragraph:
“First, I will examine the three best-selling mousetraps on the market and their significant flaws. Next, I will explain the research and development process of my mousetrap. Finally, I will present two case studies of companies that have successfully implemented my mouse traps. “
I think readers appreciate what they’re getting into, don’t they?
A well-written introduction will propel your reader to the rest of your article or report. No matter how important the information is in your report, it won’t matter much if no one reads it! So do your writing a favor: follow the five steps above and write a clear and compelling introduction for every article, essay, and report you write.