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HOW MUCH TO SAY UPFRONT

Most of the difficulties in composing introductions and conclusions arise in deciding how you should deal with the thesis. How much of it should you put in the introduction?

The first paragraph does not need to—and usually can’t—offer your conclusion; it will take the body of your paper to accomplish that. It should, however, provide a quick look at particular details that set up the issue. Use these details to generate a theory, a working hypothesis, about whatever it is you think is at stake in the material. The rest of the paper will test and develop this theory.

The most important thing to do in the introductory paragraph of an analytical paper is to lay out a genuine issue, something that seems to be at stake in whatever it is you are studying. Preferably, you should select a complex issue—one not easily resolved, seeming to have some truth on both sides—and not an overly general one. Otherwise, you run the risk of writing a paper that proves the obvious or radically oversimplifies.

Set up this issue as quickly and concretely as you can. As a general rule, you should assume that readers of your essay will need to know on page one—preferably by the end of your first paragraph—what your paper is attempting to resolve or negotiate.

In the sciences, the standard instructions for composing an introduction are worded somewhat differently, but with similar intent: create a context by citing all previous work relevant to your study, show the need for new information by pointing to an uncertainty or problem in existing knowledge, and say what you are trying to accomplish and why it is important.

WHAT INTRODUCTIONS DO: “WHY WHAT I’M SAYING MATTERS”

The primary challenge in writing introductions lies in occupying the middle ground between saying too much too soon (overassertive prejudgment) and saying too little upfront (avoidance of taking a position).

A rule of thumb is start fast. The introduction should give your reader a quick (a third of a typed page or a half-page at most) sampling of some feature or features in your evidence that initially aroused your curiosity. Avoid unnecessary throat-clearing, and cut immediately to something interesting that you have observed and that your paper will put into context and explain. Your introduction is saying: “Look at this, reader; it is worth thinking about, and here’s why.”

As the Latin roots of the word suggest—intro, meaning “within,” and ducere, meaning “to lead or bring”—an introduction brings the reader into a subject. Its length varies, depending on the scope of the writing project. An introduction may take a paragraph, a few paragraphs, a few pages, a chapter, or even a book. In most academic writing, one or two paragraphs is a standard length. In that space, you should try to accomplish some or all of the following objectives:

Define your topic—the issue, question, or problem—and say why it matters.

Indicate your method of approach to the topic.

Provide necessary background or context.

Offer the working thesis (hypothesis) your paper will develop.

An objective missing from this list that you might expect to find is the directive to engage the reader. Clearly, all introductions need to engage the reader, but this advice is too often misinterpreted as an invitation to be entertaining or cute. In academic writing, you don’t need a gimmick to engage your readers; you can assume they care about the subject. You will engage them if you can articulate why your topic matters, doing so in terms of existing thinking in the field.

Especially in a first draft, the objectives just listed are not so easily achieved, which is why many writers wisely defer writing the polished version of the introduction until they have completed at least one draft of the paper. At that point, you will usually have a clearer notion of why your subject matters and which aspect of your thesis to place first. Often, the conclusion of a first draft becomes the introduction to