How To Create A Good Introduction Paragraph For A Narrative Essay

Your introductory paragraph will be one of the most important parts of your narrative essay as it will set the scene for the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘when’.

There are different types of narrative essays and basically you may have to adapt some of these ideas to fit into its organization.

Ideally think of this first paragraph as the one that really needs to grasp the attention of your reader and present the topic.

Where do you start?

• Get as much information as you can about your topic.
• Brainstorm. This will help you find any gaps in your knowledge about the subject.
• Do you need to interview other people for information?
• Do you need to get any resources such as photographs or books?
• Do you need to visit a place to enable you to describe the situation?

Once you have details

• Think about the layout of your work and the progressions of ideas.
• Decide what you need to put in that first section.
• Choose how the first section will relate to the subsequent paragraphs.
• Select how you will conclude your work.
• Add notes to what you may include in each section.

What’s next?

• Make a list of all of the sensory details that you will need. Focus on sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.
• You may not need to use all of the senses but pay emphasis to the important one that help to set the scene.
• If you are writing about a past even then, what other details do you remember and what always reminds you of that event?
• Write down as many details as you can. You may not use all of the details but at this point it will be really helpful if you do.
• Even if you don’t use these details in the first section, you may need them in the next few paragraphs.

Now you can start writing

• Choose something from your sensory list to start your work.
• You may decide to start with a dialogue. You may not have remembered everything word for word but, you will be able to let your reader ‘hear’ what is being said.
• Make sure that you remind the reader what your topic is about. Tell them if it was a memory of an incident or an experience.
• Let the reader know why you have chosen to share the details that you have picked out and place emphasis on the importance.
• As a rule if you are writing a two page paper then the first paragraph should not take up more than ten sentences.

Happy Writing !