Markers form an impression of your essay within the first hundred words. That is not fair, but it is consistent, and it means the opening paragraph earns disproportionate attention relative to its length.
Learning how to write an essay introduction is mostly a matter of knowing what belongs in it and, just as importantly, what does not.
What an introduction has to do
Three jobs, in this order.
- Establish the territory. What subject are we in, and why does this question matter?
- Narrow to your specific focus. Which part of that territory are you addressing?
- State your position. What are you going to argue, and roughly how?
That movement from broad to narrow to specific claim is the standard shape, and markers are looking for it whether or not the rubric says so.
How long should it be?
Around ten percent of your total word count is the usual guide. For a 2,000 word essay that is roughly 200 words, which is one solid paragraph rather than a page.
If your introduction is running past fifteen percent, you are almost certainly including material that belongs in the main body.
The thesis statement
This is the sentence that carries the most weight in the entire essay, and it is where most introductions fall down.
A weak thesis describes what the essay will cover. A strong one states what you will argue.
Compare these two:
This essay will discuss the causes of the 2008 financial crisis.
Although deregulation is frequently identified as the primary cause of the 2008 financial crisis, this essay argues that failures in credit rating methodology played a more decisive role.
The first tells the marker nothing they could not guess from the title. The second commits to a position, acknowledges a competing view, and signals the shape of the argument to come.
Openings that work
You need to earn attention without resorting to gimmicks. Reliable options include a specific and slightly surprising statistic, a brief concrete example that embodies the problem, a genuine scholarly disagreement, or a direct statement of the tension your essay resolves.
What matters is that the opening is specific. Generic scene setting reads as filler because it usually is.
Openings to avoid
- The dictionary definition. Beginning with what a word means signals that you have nothing better to open with.
- The dawn of time. Sentences beginning “Throughout human history” or “Since the beginning of civilisation” say nothing.
- The rhetorical question. Rarely as engaging as it feels while writing it.
- The announcement. “In this essay I will first discuss, then examine, and finally conclude” is a table of contents, not an argument.
- Restating the title. The marker set the question and does not need it read back.
Write it last
This is the most useful practical advice on the subject. You cannot introduce an argument you have not finished making.
Draft a rough placeholder to orient yourself, write the essay, then return and write the real introduction once you know what you actually argued. It takes a fraction of the time and it is invariably better, because the promise it makes matches what the essay delivers.
A quick test before you submit
Read only your introduction and your conclusion, one after the other, ignoring everything between. Do they agree? Does the introduction promise what the conclusion claims to have shown?
If they have drifted apart, the introduction is the one to change, because the essay you actually wrote is the real evidence of your argument.
If you want a second opinion
Your tutor is the best source of feedback on a specific essay, since they know the criteria being applied. Take a draft rather than a list of questions.
If the writing is the sticking point rather than the ideas, we cover essay writing help across most subject areas, and assignment writing help for coursework more broadly. For an essay you have already written that needs sharpening, proofreading and editing is usually the better value option.