How to Write a Good Introduction for Any Essay

Writing an introduction can prove one of the most daunting aspects to writing an essay. If you’re not sure where to begin or just want to make sure your own introduction is ticking all the boxes, this article should help you get on the right path to writing an essay that shows examiners exactly what they’re looking for.

Why Write an Introduction?

Everyone recognises that an essay has to begin somewhere, but why does it need an introduction? Why not just fire straight into the meat-and-potatoes of the matter and start making your arguments?

Some shorter essays may benefit from this approach, but generally even the shortest essay will benefit from setting out some key information at its outset.

At a bare minimum you need to tell the reader what your essay is about and what they might expect to find in it. How much detail you put in will depend on a number of factors. Read on to find out what to include in your essay.

Restate Your Essay Title and Topic

The one thing every introduction needs to do is set out what the essay is about. This may seem pointless if the essay is a set question or if it’s essentially just repeating the title, but the point is to demonstrate that you know what it’s about.

This essay explores the role of mythology in shaping national identity.

This essay evaluates how effective explicit instruction is for teaching students with autism.

It can be that simple. However, you might take this opportunity to narrow down your focus onto the specific aspects of the topic or question you’re looking at, giving a little more detail as to what topics you want to focus on.

This essay explores the role of mythology in shaping national identity. It asks to what extent traumatic events are mythologised in order to meet the needs of present-day national identities.   

This essay evaluates how effective explicit instruction is for teaching students with autism, focusing specifically on its use in teaching primary-school students literacy skills.

Starting off in this way lets your reader know what to expect and what not to expect in your essay. Let your examiner know immediately how you’re interpreting the question and what aspects of the topic you hone in on in your answer.

Do I Need a Hook?

Some of you may be reading the above section and thinking, ‘but what about my hook?’ For those who like to do things in style, it is always tempting to open an essay with a ‘hook’ – an attention-grabbing piece of information, question, or statement that gets the reader ‘on the hook’ and whets their appetite to read further.

Hooks are typically used to open an essay and may set the scene, introduce a particular problem, or highlight the relevance of the essay:

The year is 1536 and Anne Boleyn sits in the Tower of London awaiting trial.

Nature or nurture? It’s a question that has plagued philosophers since time immemorial. 

The problem with hooks is that there’s a fine line between attention-grabbing prose and appearing unserious or trivial. Ensure any opening hooks serve a genuine purpose in your introduction and don’t serve merely to introduce a particular fact or observation you want to drop in – save that for later.

The takeaway: hooks are risky. If in doubt, leave it out and begin by describing your essay topic or question.

What Is the Debate and Why Is It Relevant?

Barring the simplest descriptive essays, most marking criteria from high school upwards will insist that you are scored on your criticality. Examiners want to know how well you’ve engaged with the key debates in whatever subject and see that you’ve thought about both sides of the discussion.

You want to demonstrate that you understand that there are at least two perspectives on any given issue and that you’ve considered both in your answer:

This essay is about free will and whether moral choices are truly possible. Some philosophers hold that free will does not exist because all events are pre-determined, whereas others believe that human beings’ choices are not constrained by pre-determined events.

You want to also state why resolving this debate is important and link this back to your topic or essay question:

This debate is vital to resolve because if all events are predetermined, then it is unclear how anyone can make a meaningful choice when they decide to act rightly or wrongly.

In this way, you are giving a kind of rationale behind why you’re answering this question. In some cases this might be very simple: you want to know the most effective ways to treat depression so that mental health professionals can prescribe the best treatment. In other cases, you might have to go a little further to make the relevance of your question clear. 

However, don’t be tempted to overexplain: if your topic needs a lot of explanation, just give an overview in your introduction and then explain further in the first section of your essay after your introduction. Don’t pad out the introduction with detailed explanations – keep it close to the point.

How You Are Going to Answer the Question

You’ve set out your research topic and perhaps clarified why it’s important. Now you need to say how you’re going to answer that question.

It may be that you’re going to refer to a case study to support your argument, or that you’re going to conduct a review of the available literature. What you want here is to give an overview of any research methods you might have used (e.g., a literature review, data analysis, classroom observation) and clarify how this answers your question: 

In order to understand how the USA can respond to the rise of China, the case study of the crisis in the South China Sea was selected. Constructivist and realist perspectives were applied to the case, making reference to the secondary literature of leading scholars such as Peter Katzenstein and John Mearsheimer.

Interviews with eight trainee social workers were undertaken so as to better understand the role of case load in social worker attrition. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then subjected to thematic analysis. An inductive approach to coding was taken to ensure the participants’ thoughts, feelings and attitudes were fully represented in the study’s findings.

These examples include rather complex methods, but your approach might be simpler. What you need to emphasise above all else is how your approach to the essay is going to answer the question:

Through reflecting on the benefits of explicit instruction to teaching students, I offer an evaluation as to how far these methods are effective. 

Thesis Statement

One question that tutors get asked a lot is whether an essay needs a clear thesis statement. A thesis statement is the point you are arguing towards and typically it will offer some resolution to your essay question:

This essay makes the case that Spongebob Squarepants was the greatest artistic achievement of the early-2000s.

Some marking criteria may demand that there is a clear thesis statement in your introduction, though in many cases it’s optional. In an argumentative essay, you may feel that it is better to argue towards your conclusion rather than leading with it. However, it is usually safer to include a thesis statement, as some markers will want to know what conclusion you’re arguing towards as soon as possible. 

Anything Else?

How detailed your introduction needs to be is typically dictated by essay length. For a longer essay or a dissertation, you’ll want to include at the end of the introduction some overview of the structure of your paper:

Following this introduction, a review of the literature is carried out, followed by a chapter outlining the study’s methodology…

In longer essays, you may also want to include dedicated sections setting out the context behind your paper, as well as your rationale, aims and objectives, and research questions. However, for most shorter essays (<5,000 words), this typically won’t be necessary.

Putting It Together

By now, you should have an idea as to what belongs in your introduction. Now it is simply a case of putting it all together.

Some students fret over how long their introduction ought to be. Some might argue that 10% of your word count is reasonable, though there’s no hard and fast rule. However, if you’re spending more than 20% of your word count on your introduction, it may be worth considering editing it down and including any key information in other sections (e.g., on background, literature, research methods, etc.).

The following should give some indication as to how you might structure your introduction:

You can use the column on the right as a checklist to ensure your own introduction has all the right components ordered according to convention.

Get All the Feedback You Can

It never hurts to get a second pair of eyes on your work before you submit. If you’re still struggling, you might consider sending your essay over to one of our expert markers to take a look. We have a team of experienced markers on hand who will not only grade your work but offer bespoke, line-by-line guidance as to how to improve your essay and your grade. Get on over to our main page and give it a try.