For many students, it’s more difficult to start an essay rather to write the rest of it. No worries. On myeasypaper.com, we will show you how to start an essay and write a perfect introduction for any topic. Learn top tips and tricks on writing an introductory paragraph with us and get an A from your professor!

What is the Purpose of the Introduction in an Essay

Obviously, the major purpose of introduction is introducing (no kidding!) the major idea of your text to your audience. However, professors often require more and ask students to complete an introduction that would grab attention of the audience and raise their willingness to read further. Hence, we can define two major aims of introduction:

  • to explain what the paper is all about
  • to make readers interested in your paper.

In other words, if your professor did not decide to close your essay while reading an introduction, you have already succeeded. 

 

Structure of the Introductory Paragraph

You can write introduction in any way you want. However, those who start mastering their writing skills usually refer to a fixed structure. It presupposes three parts: 

Sometimes, you can add a bridge between a hook and a background. It is needed when you need to smooth transition between your attention grabber and further sentences of an essay. 

At the same time, there is a recommendation to go from general to specific points. In other words, you should start with general information (like, eating healthy is good), narrow down (eating healthy is good for digestive system), and end with something specific (eating products high in fiber decrease risk of bowel cancer). 

 

Good Ways to Start an Essay: Sample Essay Hooks Introductions

You must have heard about hook a lot of times, as it’s a traditional way to start an essay. There are plenty of hooks that you can use — or you can create your won. Attention grabber is probably the most creative part of any essay, so you can write it as you want. The only aim that you should keep in mind is necessity to raise interest of your audience. 

If you are not sure about hook that you would like to use, check these examples below:

  • An interesting question

If you want to make your audience think about the topic of your paper, ask them a question. Of course, it should be directly related to your essay. You can also continue surprising your audience by adding other types of hooks after that. 

Example: Have you ever thought that your life could have been better?

 

  • A story

Start telling a story related to the topic. Stories are always engaging — in case they are told correctly. However, such a hook cannot be applicable to all types of essay. You definitely cannot start your research paper or thesis with a personal story. 

 

  • A quote

This one is among the easiest hooks you can think of. Just take a phrase of a famous person that is applicable to the topic of your paper — and you’re on a roll. However, such a technique is suitable only for high school or college papers. 

Example: “You were given a choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.” These words of Winstone Churchill remain significant in current conflict. 

 

  • A strong statement

You can amaze your readers by telling them about your position from the very beginning. To create an effect, this statement should not be obvious. It’s a perfect way to start an argumentative essay but be sure to make your initial hook different from your thesis statement. 

Example: While human activity is the main reason for global warming, actions of regular people cannot contribute much to saving the planet. 

 

  • A fact or statistics

Another easy way to start an essay when you are out of ideas is to find a suitable fact or statistics. Be sure to find a credible source if you choose this option. It will also need a bridge to connect your fact with the rest of introduction.

Example: According to official statistics, COVID-19 has already caused 6,52 million of deaths.

 

There are other popular hooks, such as metaphor or description. We will not talk about them in details as they can be rarely used in academic writing. 

 

Let’s Talk about Background

Unlike other two parts of introduction, background is not always described in details. The reason for that is simple: there are no specific requirements to it. It will depend on your topic, type of essay, and other details. As background follows your hook, make sure they are connected. So if you start with a statistics on COVID-19, your background information should develop. You can add more details and numbers or talk about consequences. On the other hand, you can also add contrast: show that despite actual numbers, people think or do the opposite (or ignore the problem). 

Even though background doesn’t have a typical structure, there are some parts that are usually apparent in it.

  • General topic

You can describe the problem in general or show its significance as a bridge in your introduction.

  • Sub-topic

Here you begin to narrow your topic and highlight your specific point of interest.

  • Key terms

Sometimes, especially in long papers, keywords are written separately below abstract. You can include them in introduction as well and explain their meaning (in case they may be unfamiliar to readers)

  • Relevance

This part helps to explain why your topic or claim is important and worth further reading. We suggest writing it in any introduction. 

  • Aim

Sometimes you can write your goal in a thesis statement. However, if your thesis statement has different format, you can write your aim separately. 

  • Outline

You can also introduce your plan of research to readers. Name major parts of the paper here and how they will be delivered. Outlining is more suitable for big papers; in 500-words essays, it will be redundant. 

 

How to Write Thesis Statement in Introduction

Introduction usually ends with a thesis statement: it defines the purpose and the general idea of an essay. We have already introduced a complete guide about thesis statement: you can read more here. Briefly, your thesis statement should clearly define the major arguments or points of an essay: you can enumerate arguments or summarize them. 

 

How to Write an Introduction: Top Tips

Here are some steps that can assist you in starting a paper. Follow them to have your intro written as a piece of cake.

Step 1. Do a research

Gather information about your topic and dig to find previously unknown facts. 

Step 2. Choose something that evokes your emotions

If there a fact, a story, or a number that evokes your emotions, it will also affect your readers. 

Step 3. Write down this fact in a form of a sentence

You can take more than one sentence if you need. However, your introduction should not take the majority of your paper.

Step 4. Think about connections between your hook and thesis statement

You can write down them in a couple of words and cross out irrelevant pieces of information

Step 5. Create an introduction, keeping in mind smooth transition between hook and thesis statement

Step 6. Revise your introduction

Additional hint: Sometimes it’s easier for students to write introduction after completing the rest of the paper. It’s totally okay! You can write body paragraphs and even conclusion first, and then complete an introduction. However, we advise having your thesis statement already prepared.  

 

Essay Introduction Example

Now that we have learnt principles of introductory paragraph, we can check how it’s written. You can follow this example to write your own — or place an order on myeasypaper.com if you are drained of studying. 

 

According to official statistics, COVID-19 has already caused 6,52 million of deaths, being a major cause of death among adults of age 45-55 in the United States. At the same time, it seems that era of COVID-19 fear is coming to an end. Modern challenges, such as Russia’s attempts to invade Ukraine, problems with gas and oil, along with economic crisis make people think of health issues as something irrelevant. At the same time, severe consequences of COVID and necessity to fight it did not disappear. Continuous change of business and increasing variety of online facilities may become the key to overcoming another COVID-19 disaster this year.