You never get a second chance to make a first impression. According to the 11th handout in the 24-part Writing the Paper series, that's why writing a strong introduction is so important. The handout offers strategies for crafting effective introductions and also includes information on styles to avoid.

Concepts

introductions, introductory paragraphs, introductory elements, essay writing

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Review introductions from different articles or essays and rate them based on their effectiveness and ability to engage readers
• Have writers craft three to four introductions for a paper, and then choose the best one

Classroom Considerations

• Print double-sided and skip the final page (it's mostly blank) to save paper

Pros

• Includes sample sentences to illustrate the strategies mentioned
• Links to a handout on conclusions to help with multiple aspects of the writing process

Cons

• Spends more time and offers more examples of less effective introductions than giving examples of good ones
  

Common Core

W.9-10.4 W.11-12.4