Some Basic Guidelines
DON’T
summarize
Though it might seem easy to preface your
thesis with only a synopsis of the texts you’re writing about,
this is a particularly dull way to begin a paper.
DON'T keep
reiterating your thesis
Your thesis should appear in your intro as the culmination of
the previous thoughts, not just something you mention and then
keep restating to fill up a paragraph.
DO
ask yourself questions
Why is your thesis
relevant? How is its being proven important to the understanding
of either text or fact? By linking your argument to a larger
issue, you will give your argument both universality and
interest.
DO
be creative
Think about what aspect of your
topic you find the most interesting, and figure out why. Use
this to make it interesting to your reader.
Some Freebies
(The
following are some pre-packaged introduction ideas. It is important,
however, not to just adopt one and use it for every paper,
particularly for the same instructor. This practice will become
trite very quickly.)
The quotation
Find a quote from one of your sources or, even better, from
elsewhere that seems to get at the problem you're dealing with.
State it at the beginning of your intro and discuss how it
relates to what you're trying to prove.
The question
Throw out a broad question of universal interest, and
demonstrate how a possible answer can be related to your thesis
(Example: "What do women want? It's a question that's plagued
mankind since the dawn of history...the works of Emily Dickinson
and Sylvia Plath yield two different paradigms of feminine
self-realization").
The anecdote
This works particularly well for a historical essay, and even
better if you have some ability at creative writing. Pick a
specific incident that represents the underlying conflict of
your piece, and briefly narrate it like a story. Explain
afterwards how the instance reflects a problem you're attempting
to solve.
