How To Write An Impressive Introduction For Your Term Paper

A great term paper depends on a great introduction, yet many students find this to be one of the most difficult parts to write. Where do you begin? First of all, you must understand the purpose of the introduction.

Characteristics of a good introduction:

• It provides an overall descriptive review of what the paper is all about.
• It introduces the topic of the paper so the reader knows what’s coming up.
• It starts out with a broad context and then narrows down to the specific research problem, argument or thesis.
• It may explain how you determine to solve the problem.
• Gives the reader a lead into your research work.
• Is written for a person who has some knowledge in the specific field.

Knowing the purpose of the introduction gives you a starting place. There are also some basic strategies for writing one, such as the following:

• Write the introduction after you have written the paper. The reason for this strategy is because the introduction is a review or summary of the main ideas of the paper. It’s much easier to do this when you know what the paper entails. You can use it to formulate your introduction.
• Use the introduction to set the background of your main points. Stick to relevant details and don’t go to deep or your introduction will end up too long.
• Keep it relatively short. Long, rambling paragraphs will quickly lose your readers. It should be based closely on the outline you used for writing the paper.
• Define the problem and state how you are going to solve it. Once the reader has read the introduction, they should know what you are attempting to achieve in the writing of the paper.
• Don’t state anything in the introduction that you don’t back up with content in the main body of the term paper.

After your paper has been finished, go over your introduction again. Make sure all parts of it are found, in the same order, within the body of the paper. Now formulate the “hook”, or opening sentence of the introduction. It must capture your reader’s attention. It could be a quote, interesting and relevant piece of information, or a question. The hook is the opening sentence. It’s a statement or question that helps the reader’s curiosity to develop and makes them feel drawn in to reading the rest of the paper.