How can I write an effective introduction?

Though introductions are the shortest paragraph you will write for your essay, be it coursework or an exam answer, they are often the trickiest to get right: so here are some tips to make writing them easier.

One thing an introduction must be is attention grabbing- these are the first few lines that the examiner or your teacher will read so it’s important to create a good impression of the essay.

In order to do this you must be clear and to the point, which means avoiding generalisations! Examples include, “In this modern world” or “Shakespeare’s Macbeth makes us question what it is to be human”, these are simply too vague. The term “modern world” is too all-encompassing and similarly the concept of “what it is to be human” opens up too many possibilities for a focused essay. Though it’s easy to fall into the trap of these grand sounding statements, what we want to do is ground what we want to say about the poem, play or novel in the first few lines.

This brings us to the thesis statement: certainly the most important line of your introduction if not the entire essay: it is simply a sentence that can say “this is what the essay will be about”.

For example, if I am answering the essay question “How does Thomas present the relationship between society and the body in “The Hunchback in The Park”?” I will start the introduction with a statement relating directly to the idea of the body in the context the poet was writing in, followed by my thesis statement, creating the following paragraph:

Writing as he was in the 1940’s, in the midst of a war torn world where male bodies were needed as fighting machines without imperfection, it is perhaps interesting that Dylan Thomas produced “The Hunchback in The Park”. This essay will posit that the poem reflects the way in which society will reject and ‘other’ an aesthetically imperfect body in contrast to the perfect ‘ideal’, as well as seek to hijack the thoughts and feelings of the othered model.

And that’s all there is to an effective introduction, remember: be concise and relevant.