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Essay Introduction: Common Writing Guidelines for Beginners
Essays can be divided into three main parts, introduction, body and conclusion. Although the main content of the essay lies in the body of the paper, it can be stated that essay introduction is no less significant in that matter.
The significance of essay introduction can be seen in that most decisions regarding the quality of the paper and whether to finish reading or not are taken based on such part. Thus, this article outlines several guidelines that should be followed, when writing essay introductions.
It is rarely that a writer will decide to write the essay’s introduction after completing the main body of the paper. In that regard, a strongly formulated introduction can set the tone for the remaining paper, not only for the audience while reading, but for writers as well. Thus, the following general guidelines might be helpful to consider, when writing essay introduction:
- Essay introduction should be brief. Do not make your introductions more than one paragraph in length.
- Start your essay introduction with a hook. The hook implies a topic sentence, which will attract the reader to the contents of your essay.
- Formulate a strong thesis. Essay introductions should indentify the position of the writer on the topic he/she is going to cover. In that regard, a weak thesis statement can be considered a statement reading which does not determine the point the writer is going to prove.
- Essay introductions should not repeat the facts and the arguments that the writer is going to use in the paper. Essay introductions are not abstracts or executive summaries, and thus, they should not provide findings, personal conclusions, or all elements of support the author will use in the body of the paper. In addition to repeating information, the reader might lose interest toward the rest of the paper.