Introduction techniques

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Introduction techniques
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The introduction to an essay is
important. It can either attract attention so
that the reader continues to read or cause the
reader to lose interests and stop, so it requires
care and attention.
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How ideas are introduced depends on the
audience and the type of essay.
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Every introduction should

• Capture the readers attention,
• Present the main idea, (thesis statement)
• Give the reader an idea of what material will
  follow,
• Hint at how the writing is organized.

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Many writers have trouble writing
introductions. Knowing some frequently used
types is helpful.
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Introductions can include anecdotes,
definitions, quotations, and humorous statements,
but perhaps, the most useful are those in the
following examples.
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Factual statements or historical
backgroundHealth care practitioners are very
concerned about one of the fastest growing health
problems today, Alzheimers disease, which robs
elderly people of memory. Experts say that about
10 percent of people over age 65 and 47 percent
of people over 85 suffer from this disease.
Health planners are alarmed by these figures.
The number of people over 85 is growing fast, and
by the year 2050, more than 14 million Americans
might have the disease. Since doctors dont know
what causes it, and they have no cure, there is a
real question of how to solve this growing health
problem.
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A brief descriptionWe climbed in the
ski lift to go to the top of the Aguille du Midi,
a mountain high above the town of Chamonix,
France, before the sun was up. The air was clear
and fresh at dawn, and the sun began to shine
behind the mountain ahead of us. From the
windows of the small ski lift, we could see the
jagged rocks under us and the top of the awesome
peak above us..
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The Narration of an incidentIn 1994, as
I was traveling across the United States with a
college friend, our car broke down in a small
town in Kansas. It was a weekend and we couldnt
get the car repaired for several days. Trying to
save money, we had been taking turns driving day
and night and didnt want to pay for a hotel
room.
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A questionHave you ever entered a room
that was filled with people you had never met?
How did you feel? What did you do?
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A shared experienceThe English language
is plagued with the most erratic spelling
practices of all the great languages. This fact
needs little introduction, especially to those of
us who have tried to learn English as a Second
language. Even native speakers of the language
have trouble with its spelling irregularities,
which are a result of four principal factors
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Many introductions begin with background
information of a general type and lead to the
thesis by a combination of the methods mentioned.
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The Funnel Introductionbegins with one
or two very general sentences about the topic.
Each subsequent sentence becomes increasingly
focused on the topic until the last sentence,
which states very specifically what the essay
will be about.
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You start with a wide picture and gradually
narrow the focus your thesis statement.
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Underline the thesis statement in each
example introductory paragraph.
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Introductory paragraph 1The funnel
Moving to a new country can be an exciting,
even exhilarating experience. In a new
environment, you somehow feel more alive. Seeing
new sights, eating new food, hearing the foreign
sounds of a new language, and feeling a different
climate against your skin stimulate your senses
as never before. Soon, however, this sensory
bombardment becomes sensory overload. Suddenly,
new experiences seem stressful rather than
stimulating, and delight turns into discomfort.
This is the phenomenon known as culture shock.
Culture shock is more than jet lag or
homesickness, and it affects nearly everyone who
enters a new culture--tourists, business
travelers, diplomats, and students alike.
Although not everyone experiences culture shock
in exactly the same way, many experts agree that
it has roughly five stages.
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Introductory paragraph 2the
dramatic, interesting or funny storyOn November
14, 1963,a few miles off the southern coast of
Iceland, the crew of a fishing boat noticed smoke
on the horizon. Thinking that another fishing
boat was on fire, they went to investigate. When
they got closer, they discover that the smoke was
not from a boat on fire rather it was from an
undersea volcano about to erupt. The next day,
ash, cinders, ( a fragment of lava) and pumice
(volcanic glass) were blown 1,000 feet into the
air. The fishermen had witnessed a rare event
the violent birth of an island. The volcano
continued to erupt for about four years,
eventually creating an island about 1 square mile
in area and 560 feet in height. The birth of
Surtsey, as the island is named, offered
scientists an extraordinary opportunity to learn
how life takes hold on a sterile landmass.
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Introductory paragraph 3Surprising
factYou got high blood pressure? Try a truffle.
Are you worried about heart disease? Buy a
bonbon. Its the best news in years! Studies in
two prestigious scientific journals say dark
chocolate is good for you. It seems that eating
a small piece of dark chocolate regularly can
reduce the risk of heart disease because dark
chocolate but not milk chocolate or white
chocolate contains high amount of flavenoids,
powerful cholesterol-fighting compounds. What is
the next health food going to be? Ice cream?
Sugar cookies? There are so many conflicting
news stories about which foods are good for you
that it is often difficult to make the right
choices at the supermarket.
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Introductory Paragraph 4Historical
backgroundThe Pilgrims who arrived in
Massachusetts in 1620 came to find religious
freedom. In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, large numbers of African men and women
were brought as slaves to work on large
plantations in the South. Immigrants from
southern and northern Europe came in the early
nineteenth century, the first immigrants from
China came as contact laborers to build the
railroads connecting East and West. In the
twentieth century, political and economic
refugees arrived from Asia, Eastern Europe, and
Latin America. Indeed, the United States has
seen immigrants come from many different parts of
the world, and they have come for many different
reasons. Their ability to adjust to life in
their adopted land has depended on several
factors.
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In your opinion, which introduction
captures the readers interest the best?Why?
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Can you identify the techniques used in
the following introduction?Almost everyone in
the United States has been to a McDonalds
restaurant. Whether you like the hamburgers or
not, you must admit that McDonalds cannot be
ignored as part of the American restaurant scene.
Why is it so popular? Almost one-third of all
hamburgers sold in the US are sold in McDonalds.
In fact, its sales are larger than the combined
sales of Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Kentucky
Fried Chicken. A new McDonalds opens every 15
hours somewhere in the world, so wherever you go,
you might run into one. A brief look at the
development of this restaurant chain may explain
its overwhelming popularity.
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The End!