2. Question
The difference between a good essay and a great essay is having a focused and meaningful question that you’re trying to answer (that is where the word “essay” comes from: the French word essayer, to try!).
A good research question motivates your research paper and makes your thesis meaningful. It sets up what you’re aiming to discover and helps establish the scope of your essay. Your paper should be tailored toward answering a specific question, not just pointing out what you find interesting.
Although this question does not need to appear explicitly in your introduction, asking it outright can help make sure you and the reader are on the same page about the purpose of your essay and the motivation behind your argument.
3. Thesis statement
Your introduction should state outright the argument that you are trying to make. A common mistake is waiting to state your thesis until the end of the essay. You’re not trying to surprise your reader with your argument; you’re trying to convince them, and you need to be clear to be persuasive. A thesis statement tells the reader what you’re trying to prove so that they know what to look for in the rest of the essay.
Within or around your thesis statement, you can provide a roadmap of your essay’s structure. This is especially helpful in longer papers, as it forecasts how your argument will unfold in the coming pages.
For more on how to write a good thesis statement, check out our guide.
4. “So what?”
Why should someone read your paper? Why is your argument important? What’s new about what you have to say? These are all ways of asking “so what?” — a question that should guide your entire essay but take center stage in your introduction and conclusion. Like having a compelling research question, remembering “so what?” can take your writing to the next level. Through your orientation, question, and thesis statement, you have opportunities to show your reader why your argument matters.
In some cases, especially if the topic of your essay has been assigned to you, the “so what?” may not be obvious, or it may be difficult to find. The importance of your argument doesn’t need to be overblown or inaccurate to the scale of your argument — a five-page paper on metaphors related to hunger in a certain novel won’t solve food scarcity — but consider: Why is it important to answer this question? How does this argument change the way we look at the topic? Has something been articulated here, however small, that hasn’t quite been said before?
Structuring your introduction
You know the elements of a good introduction, but how do you order them? You might know that your thesis statement should come toward the end, but how do you get there?
One common recommendation for the structure of introductions is the “triangle structure” — starting with the broadest view of your topic before getting narrower until you land on your thesis. While the “triangle structure” rightly emphasizes providing context for your topic, it is important to avoid starting with such a broad view that you spend your whole introduction trying to cover the distance between your broad opening and your specific thesis.
The most compelling introductions start with something specific — a relevant anecdote, a textual detail, a moment that sparks your interest or provokes your question. Then, they provide the necessary context and orientation before honing in on a specific argument.
Here is our suggested structure for a good introduction:
- Hook the reader.
- Orient the reader to the topic, context, and key terms.
- Ask your research question.
- State your thesis.
The length of your introduction should vary based on the length of your essay. The longer the essay, the more complex it tends to be, and the more information the reader needs in order to follow the argument. For short essays, a one-paragraph introduction is often sufficient; for longer papers, you may need several paragraphs (or even pages for a MA/PhD thesis).
Writing a hook
Your introduction should start with a hook, a sentence or two that grab your reader’s attention and get them invested in the essay from the start. A hook isn’t obvious or cliched; it is clear, catchy, a little unexpected, and related to your specific argument.
Here are some examples of weak hooks:
1.) The history-of-the-world: “From the dawn of time…”
- This type of opening is much too broad; it invites overgeneralization and implies that you don’t have something substantive to say about your topic.
2.) The dictionary definition: “According to Webster’s….”
- Starting with a definition, especially of a common word, tells your reader that you didn’t know where to begin. While you should define key terms in your essay, bring them up when you can show how they’ll work in your argument or why they’re important rather than as a default starting place.
3.) The obvious importance: “...is extremely important/famous.”
- When you find yourself writing about classic literature or significant scientific developments, don’t just start by reasserting that your topic is famous or important; your reader knows that. Why is it famous or important? Are you contextualizing it in a new way? Is there a common interpretation of the topic that you intend to diverge from?
4.) The quote: “Nelson Mandela once said….”
- Starting with the quote of a famous person, particularly one whom your essay isn’t actually going to spend time talking about, reads as a lazy move.
- Starting with any quote can feel like a crutch: lead with your own ideas! You can start with a quote when it helps illustrate the tension you’re aiming to explore and you follow it up directly with your thoughts (see the third example of a strong hook below).
Here are some real-life examples of good hooks and why they work.
Good Example 1: