The way you start your essay matters greatly. If you fail to catch the readers’ attention at this point, they won’t keep reading and your hard work will be wasted. Thus, in order to make a strong first impression, you will need to get a bit creative with the introductory paragraph.
Use the following suggestions to write a paragraph that will catch the audience’s attention:
- Use a quote.
You will definitely find many interesting quotes when doing your research. If there is one that truly stands out among them, you can use it as the main attention grabbing piece of the introduction. This phrase shouldn’t be too long or the readers will lose focus.
- Introduce a bit of humor.
Anecdotes are welcome by the majority of writing styles, as long as you avoid using informal language when including them into the paper. A good anecdote can be the catch you need to keep the audience glued to your essay. It will set the mood for the whole paper and will help readers to get absorbed into the piece.
Be very careful when choosing a joke to use in the introduction. It mustn’t be offensive to anyone.
- Offer some statistics.
Depending on the type of your paper, introducing some important or shocking piece of statistical data can be the best beginning. A number that is sufficiently impressive will make people interested in reading the essay, because they will want to know how this situation came to be.
- Name a surprising fact.
Surprise people by telling them something they don’t know, and you will be able to motivate them to read your whole essay in order to find out what else they can learn.
You can add a bit of humor in this introduction and name some unknown, but genuinely silly piece of trivia. This will both catch the readers’ attention and lighten the mood of the paper.
- Start with a description.
Describing some situation or place in great detail will help the readers to “connect” with the essay. They will develop a “feel” of the situation and will be motivated to keep reading just to immerse deeper into it.
- Question the audience.
Asking a question in the introduction can be extremely effective if you want to catch the readers’ attention, especially if the question is controversial.
Your thesis must be a clear answer to this question. In this case, people will want to keep reading because they will want to know the arguments and evidence you used to support your point of view.
