Grabbing the Reader's Attention

There are many ways to begin a paper, some straightforward, others more creative. Papers generally need to aim for an objective voice and stay close to the facts. However, you have a bit more freedom in the introduction, and you can take advantage of that freedom by finding a surprising, high-impact way to highlight your issue's importance. Here are some effective strategies for opening a paper:

• Make a provocative or controversial statement
• State a surprising or little-known fact
• Make a case for your topic's relevance to the reader
• Open with a quote, a brief anecdote, or imagery that illustrates the issue
• Take a stand against something
• Stake a position for yourself within an ongoing debate
• Introduce a challenging problem or paradox

After you grab the reader's attention with the opening, make a case for the importance of your topic. Here are some questions that may help at this stage: Why did you choose this topic? Should the general public or your academic discipline be more aware of this issue, and why? Are you calling attention to an under-appreciated issue, or evaluating a widely acknowledged issue in a new light? How does the issue affect you, if at all?

Concept-Funnel Structure

A popular introduction structure is the concept-funnel. In this structure, you begin with general information about your topic, narrow the focus and provide context, and end by distilling your paper's specific approach. As you move from general background information to the specifics of your project, try to create a road map for your paper. Mirror the structure of the paper itself, explaining how each piece fits into the bigger picture. It is usually best to write the introduction after you have made significant progress with your paper, so you can accurately mirror its structure.

A Strong Beginning

A common interpretation of the funnel structure is to start very broad and sift down to the thesis, but if you start too broad, you will lose your audience in the first line. Resist the temptation to begin your introduction with phrases like these:

• From the dawn of time ...
• Throughout human history ...
• In today's world ... 
• From earliest memory ...
• Webster's defines [topic] as ...

These openings have been used so often, they no longer grab our attention but trigger us into anticipating something dull and predictable. Instead, think of that top opening of the funnel as piquing the reader's interest about the topic you're writing about. You can do this with imagery ("A six-year-old girl in a tattered blue dress stands on the street corner at 11 p.m., her eyes searching every car ..."), with a provocative statement ("The U.S. government is no longer 'of' or 'by the people' but is controlled by billionaires"), with context ("On any given evening on 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam in the city that never sleeps, there are crowds gathering in front of Lincoln Center"), or even with a concession to an opposing argument ("Amanda Wilcox's 19-year-old daughter was murdered while home on winter break. Amanda and her husband Nick were completely devastated and beset by both grief and anger").

Mirroring the Construction of Your Paper

After grabbing readers' attention with an interesting opening, you'll want to lay out your basic argument. This provides your readers with structure, appealing to the logical mind, after grabbing them through their emotions or their imagination. Leading them from your claims to your thesis, which is generally at the bottom of the "funnel," is also a subtle act of persuasion, whispering, "Once I've proven all of these points, you'll see that [my thesis] must be true." You could actually say that, but generally it's better to let the reader draw that conclusion by reading the solid, well-substantiated argument that is your paper. What you want to do here is simply draw a line from your opening to your thesis statement, using your claims.

While you're appealing to logic and reason in this part of the introduction, you needn't leave artistry behind entirely. Think of this part as weaving together each claim with the emotion you brought up in the beginning, bringing the strands in one by one. Together, they create the thesis.  

The basic structure is this:

1. Introduce the general topic in an interesting way
2. Claim 1
3. Claim 2
4. Claim 3 
5. Any other claims
6. Thesis statement

Try to leave out overt references to the fact that this is an essay (e.g., "In this essay, I will prove that ..."). The form is there to provide the structure, giving you the freedom to be artistic within it.

Amanda Wilcox's 19-year-old daughter was murdered while home on winter break. Amanda and her husband Nick were completely devastated and beset by both grief and anger. The culprit was caught, and friends of the couple would offer comfort by telling the couple that the man would pay for what he did, hopefully with his life. Amanda and Nick could see how people would think these words would help. Revenge seems satisfying on the surface: at least there is something that can be done to "right the wrong." But neither of these broken-hearted parents could find solace in vengeance. They recognized that putting her murderer to death would not bring back their daughter, even if it might feel justified. They were also aware that even when the case against a felon seems air-tight, DNA evidence has cleared 263 convicts since the year 2000. The families of murder victims around the country have reason to feel anger, hurt, and even utter hatred for the person who took away their loved one. But the death penalty is a solution based on passion and emotion, not a viable punishment for any crime in a civilized society.

In this paragraph, the example in the opening takes us through the claims, getting us closer to the thesis. This is a way of weaving the paragraph together. The reader is ushered into the topic and through the claims without being conscious of reading an essay.

Write the Introduction Last

Saving your introductory paragraph until the end of your drafting process will put the power of your paper's argument behind you as you create. Ask yourself these questions before you begin:

• Why is this topic interesting?
• What's the most fascinating or shocking thing I found in my research?
• What kinds of things surprised me as I read and wrote?
• How would I tell a friend about what I found?
• If I were to pick up a book to read about this topic, what would capture my imagination?

Allow yourself to enjoy the process of writing your introduction. Let your creativity run free here, within the general structure. Take some risks! This is the place where your personality can show through, to the delight of the reader, who is undoubtedly ready and waiting to be surprised.