What is the Introduction?

1. What is the Introduction? • This is what readers read first, so it is very important. The introduction presents the essay topic in general. In addition, through the thesis statement, the introduction guides the reader to the essay’s overall organization and purpose.

2. Writing the Introduction • Three Parts to Introduction Hook Background Information Thesis

3. HOOK • The hook GRABS the reader’s attention. • There are a couple of different methods

4. Use an interesting question What if you were to wake up tomorrow morning and have no memory of the past? As unlikely as this may seem, it is not impossible. Millions of Americans are suffering from memory loss. For some people, it is happening very quickly and without warning. It is a disease that is associated with old age. Although one major factor is Alzheimer’s disease, there are other major causes as well.

5. Use a famous quote “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” This well known quotation is the motto of the optimist and the lucky. It says that life is full of good things. However, what if your life isn’t full of nice things? What if you do not have the advantages of life and fell like life is getting worse? Such is the world of the clinically depressed. People that are depressed feel like their lives have no meaning. Depression strikes an increasing number of people each year, and its effects can be devastating.

6. Other Methods • Begin with a short story that relates to your topic • Begin with an interesting fact • Begin with the definition of an important term in your paper

7. BACKGROUND • After you have grabbed the reader’s attention, you should give some background information about your topic. Some of your readers may not know much about your topic, so you need to briefly give important information before going to your thesis. • In short, the background is the appetizer before the main course, which is the thesis. You don’t want to serve the main course before the appetizer!

8. What if you were to wake up tomorrow morning and have no memory of the past? As unlikely as this may seem, it is not impossible. Millions of Americans are suffering from memory loss. For some people, it is happening very quickly and without warning. It is a disease that is associated with old age. Although one major factor is Alzheimer’s disease, there are other major causes as well.

9. “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” This well known quotation is the motto of the optimist and the lucky. It says that life is full of good things. However, what if your life isn’t full of nice things? What if you do not have the advantages of life and fell like life is getting worse? Such is the world of the clinically depressed. People that are depressed feel like their lives have no meaning. Depression strikes an increasing number of people each year, and its effects can be devastating.

10. THESIS • This gives the purpose and organizational structure of the essay. • It is the writer’s point of view. • You can write a direct or indirect thesis statement. • The thesis statement is the “key” to the essay. Without this key, it is virtually impossible to unlock the meaning of the essay.

11. Exercises – here are two thesis statements that you can write an introduction for. • There are many reasons why school uniforms should be required in high school. • There are many solutions to stopping hunger around the world.