WRITING TIPS

3 Quick Tips On Writing Essay Introductions

As the cliché goes, first impressions count

Your essay introduction makes up 10% of your overall word count. It’s a critical chance to market and sell your essay to your reader.

So don’t waste your words.

In my previous post, I shared my 5 top tips on how to write a good essay. In this post, I’ll share some quick tips on getting the intro right.

Without further ado:

1. Set the stage

Use the introduction to set the stage of your essay topic.

Outline any relevant background information, key debates and research.

The key word here is “relevant”. Keep it narrowed-down and focused on your topic. Your introduction is about hooking your reader’s interest, so avoid clogging it up with “since the dawn of time” clichés.

Define your key and avoid rehashing the essay question. Instead, reflect on the key ideas and issues the essay question raises.

2. Outline your essay

Your essay isn’t a crime or thriller novel. You won’t get extra marks for keeping the best till last.

See, I fell into this trap a lot back at university. I would hide all my best arguments and, instead, chose to build up suspense where the “big reveal” would be in my conclusion.

Naturally this annoyed all my tutors.

So ensure to outline all the key claims you’ll be making in your essay, as well as the key evidence and research you plan to use.

3. Make your case

Last but not least, put forward your main argument or thesis statement.

This argument should sum up the central point of your paper.

Ideally, it should fit into a single sentence e.g. this essay argues that we do not have moral obligations to future generations.

This will obviously depend on what paper you’re writing. For Philosophy papers, it’s better to state your argument immediately. Whereas for History or English Literature papers, it’s better to state the argument towards the end of the introduction.

The stronger and more concise your argument, the better.

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