How to make an opening sentence for an essay

Every essay or assignment you write must begin with an introduction.

It might be helpful to think of the introduction as an inverted pyramid. In such a pyramid, you begin by presenting a broad introduction to the topic and end by making a more focused point about that topic in your thesis statement.

The introduction has three essential parts, each of which serves a particular purpose.

The Introductory Paragraph

You also want to do that in a way that is fresh and original. Instead, you might try one of the following techniques: Offer a surprising statistic that conveys something about the problem to be addressed in the paper.

Perhaps you can find an interesting quote that nicely sums up your argument. How rhetorical questions that place your readers in a different situation in order to uq graduate school thesis preparation them make about your topic in a new way.

If you have a personal connection to the topic, you might use an anecdote or story to get your readers emotionally opening. For example, if you were writing a sentence about drunk drivers, you might begin with a compelling essay about someone whose life was forever cover letter sjsu by a drunk driver: Attending college on a track scholarship, she was earning good grades and making lots of friends.

For section helps the reader see why you are focusing on this topic and makes the transition to the main point of your paper. Therefore, you need to bridge the gap between your attention-grabber and your thesis with some transitional discussion.

In this part of your introduction, you narrow your focus of the topic and explain why the attention-grabber is relevant to the specific area you will be discussing. You should introduce your specific topic and provide any necessary background information that the reader would need in order to understand the problem that you are presenting in the paper.

Introductory Paragraphs

You can also define any key terms the reader might not know. Continuing with the example above, we might move from the narrative about Michelle to a short discussion of the scope of the problem of drunk drivers.

We might say, for example: Each year XX number of lives are lost due to drunk-driving accidents. This effectively moves the reader from the story about Michelle to your real topic, which might be the need for stricter penalties for drinking and driving.

Finally, the introduction must conclude with a clear statement of the overall point you want to make in the paper. In this scenario, your thesis would be the point you are trying to make about drunk driving. You might be arguing for better enforcement of existing laws, enactment of stricter penalties, or funding for education about drinking and driving.

Whatever the case, your thesis would clearly state the main point your paper is trying to make. This gives the reader a general sense of how you will organize the different points that follow throughout the essay. In constructing an introduction, make sure the introduction clearly reflects the goal or purpose of the assignment and that the thesis presents not only the topic to be discussed but also states a clear position about that topic that you will support and develop throughout the paper.

Elaboration Less driving time means less maintenance expense, such as oil changes. Of course, less driving time means savings on gasoline as well.

In many cases, these savings amount to more than the cost of riding public transportation.

If you wish, include a summary sentence for each paragraph. This is not generally needed, however, and such sentences have a tendency to sound stilted, so be cautious about using them. Once you have fleshed out each of your body paragraphs, one for each main point, you are ready to continue.

Study Guides and Strategies

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