Begin the first paragraph of your essay with a topic sentence that expresses the main point of your essay, the thesis statement, a kind of mini-outline for the essay; it tells the reader what the essay is about.

Introductions

1. Attract the Reader’s Attention. Begin your introduction with a “hook” that grabs your reader’s attention and introduces the general topic.
2. State Your Focused Topic. After your “hook”, write a sentence or two about the specific focus of your paper.
3. State your Thesis. Finally, include your thesis statement.

An introduction, or introductory paragraph, falls in the start of an essay. It is the first paragraph, which is also called “a gateway” of an essay. It also introduces the thesis statement of the essay, which is the heart of an essay, and tells what is to be discussed in the body paragraphs.

The introduction should make sense and hook the reader right from the start. Make your introductory paragraph brief. Typically, just three or four sentences are enough to set the stage for both long and short essays.

Here are seven mistakes I find authors make when writing their introduction:

1. They don’t describe the problem. This is a big one.
2. Their introduction is too long.
3. Their paragraphs are too long.
4. Their sentences are too long.
5. The first sentence is boring.
6. There’s no flow.
7. they use too many synonyms.

Writing someone else’s text in your own words is otherwise known as paraphrasing and is an essential skill as it prevents you from plagiarising the original author’s work. Simply put, paraphrasing means that when sharing someone else’s ideas and information, you do so using your own words.

The definition of information is news or knowledge received or given. An example of information is what’s given to someone who asks for background about something. Data are discretely defined fields. Text is a collection of words. Spreadsheets are data in matrix (row and column) form.

Here are a few tips on how to make your answer great:

1. Pay it forward. Saying “thanks” is appreciated, but it doesn’t answer the question.
2. Have the same problem?
3. Answer the question.
4. Provide context for links.
5. Write to the best of your ability.
6. Answer well-asked questions.
7. Always be polite and have fun.