Write Faster -- Introductions

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#13 Write Fast: Introductions

The single most difficult part of writing a paper is writing the introduction. In part this is true because the best introductions are written AFTER the body of the paper is written. You’ve explored the ideas fully and now you are ready to write the intro.

However, most students don’t take that road. So if you find yourself dreading starting that paper, here is a way to go from blank page to finished intro in fifteen minutes.

Develop a couple of go-to patterns for your paragraph and use them. Instead of starting with nothing, you will start by using a pattern for a solid paragraph.

Do not begin with an “attention-getter.” This is so sixth grade and it brings to mind disastrous missteps of prose. Instead, set the scene. Here are three ways you can set the scene for your reader.

 

#1 – The Essential Issue.

Many courses are organized around an essential question or several essential questions that drive the readings, the discussion, the assignments. What are the essential questions for your course? Turn one of those questions into a statement like this:

 

Every modern civilization has struggled to reconcile safety with freedom. The more citizens have of one, the less it seems they have of the other.

 

Look for the pivotal controversy, conflict, mystery, or problem your course returns to again and again and you will find an idea to use as your essential issue statement.

 

#2—Context

Context means the historical, economic, societal, religious, political, and/or scientific situation that is present. Identify what else was or is going on as your topic arises. Again, paint the picture. Don’t begin with dawn of time (unless your course begins there). Instead, give us the wide-angle lens view of the general situation. Where can you get a sense of the larger context? Look at the introduction to your textbook or look at your course syllabus.

 

#3—The Situation Vignette

Set the scene with just a bit of creative writing. This works best for political science, history, or sociology papers or similar courses. Start by thinking of a situation – could be true but it could also be a hypothetical – and write it in a way where you use sensory detail. The situation should be something that illustrates an idea in your paper. Now this takes a bit of writing technique – you have to move smoothly from narrative into academic prose, so it is not for a beginner writer.

 

If you would like examples of these and my absolute #1 favorite way to start an introduction, look in the show notes for this link, click it, give us your email, and we will send my FAVORITE introduction pattern to your inbox immediately.

 

Now, here are two things to avoid at all costs. Never use a rhetorical question. These are best left to master writers. It always sounds contrived and amateurish. Every writing teacher has nightmare stories of rhetorical question introductions gone wrong.

 

Also, never start with a quotation. You know, the old “Plato once said . . .” Your quotes are for evidence. If you want to use a quote from someone else –say a favorite poet or thinker – that is better for the start of a chapter of a book, rather than a standard academic paper. Again, it can feel contrived and out of place. Worse, it becomes a crutch. You could weave such a quotation into your conclusion toward the end, but definitely not at the start of your paper.            

 

Once you have set the scene, add a sentence of transition, and then your thesis. Your intro is done.

 

Good work.