Write introductory paragraph argumentative essay

An introduction paragraph is simply the first paragraph of an essay. Sometimes, introductions tend to be a bit tricky. Since the introduction is the first section of your essay that the reader comes across, the stakes are definitely high for your introduction to be captivating. A good introduction paragraph should accomplish the following:

The Thesis Statement The thesis statement is that sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your essay and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about.

Although it is certainly possible to write a good essay without a thesis statement many narrative essaysfor example, contain only an implied thesis statementthe lack of a thesis statement may well be a symptom of an essay beset by a lack of focus. Many writers think of a thesis statement as an umbrella: The thesis statement is also a good test for the scope of your intent.

The principle to remember is that when you try to do too much, you end up doing less or nothing at all. Can we write a good paper about problems in higher education in the United States? At best, such a paper would be vague and scattered in its approach.

Can we write a good paper about problems in higher education in Connecticut? Well, we're getting there, but that's still an awfully big topic, something we might be able to handle in a book or a Ph.

Can we write a paper about problems within the community college system in Connecticut. Now we're narrowing down to something useful, but once we start writing such a paper, we would find that we're leaving out so much information, so many ideas that even most casual brainstorming would produce, that we're not accomplishing much.

What if we wrote about the problem of community colleges in Connecticut being so close together geographically that they tend to duplicate programs unnecessarily and impinge on each other's turf?

Now we have a focus that we can probably write about in a few pages although more, certainly, could be said and it would have a good argumentative edge to it. To back up such a thesis statement would require a good deal of work, however, and we might be better off if we limited the discussion to an example of how two particular community colleges tend to work in conflict with each other.

It's not a matter of being lazy; it's a matter of limiting our discussion to the work that can be accomplished within a certain number of pages.

The thesis statement should remain flexible until the paper is actually finished. It ought to be one of the last things that we fuss with in the rewriting process.

If we discover new information in the process of writing our paper that ought to be included in the thesis statement, then we'll have to rewrite our thesis statement. On the other hand, if we discover that our paper has done adequate work but the thesis statement appears to include things that we haven't actually addressed, then we need to limit that thesis statement.

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If the thesis statement is something that we needed prior approval for, changing it might require the permission of the instructor or thesis committee, but it is better to seek such permission than to write a paper that tries to do too much or that claims to do less than it actually accomplishes.

The thesis statement usually appears near the beginning of a paper. It can be the first sentence of an essay, but that often feels like a simplistic, unexciting beginning. It more frequently appears at or near the end of the first paragraph or two.

Here is the first paragraph of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Notice how everything drives the reader toward the last sentence and how that last sentence clearly signals what the rest of this essay is going to do.

What has happened to the American male? For a long time, he seemed utterly confident in his manhood, sure of his masculine role in society, easy and definite in his sense of sexual identity.

The frontiersmen of James Fenimore Cooper, for example, never had any concern about masculinity; they were men, and it did not occur to them to think twice about it.

Even well into the twentieth century, the heroes of Dreiser, of Fitzgerald, of Hemingway remain men. But one begins to detect a new theme emerging in some of these authors, especially in Hemingway: And by mid-century, the male role had plainly lost its rugged clarity of outline.

Today men are more and more conscious of maleness not as a fact but as a problem.

The ways by which American men affirm their masculinity are uncertain and obscure. There are multiplying signs, indeed, that something has gone badly wrong with the American male's conception of himself.A good introduction in an argumentative essay acts like a good opening statement in a trial.

Just like a lawyer, a writer must present the issue at hand, give background, and put forth the main argument -- all in a logical, intellectual and persuasive way.

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In this lesson you will learn to write an introductory paragraph to engage the reader in the topic by telling your reader why this issue is important. However, argumentative essays should also consider and explain differing points of view regarding the topic.

Depending on the length of the assignment, students should dedicate one or two paragraphs of an argumentative essay to discussing conflicting opinions on the topic. The first paragraph serves as kind of a funnel opening to the essay which draws and invites readers into the discussion, which is then focused by the thesis statement before the work of the essay .

For standardized tests, students usually have to write a five paragraph essay, which should be to words long and include an introductory paragraph, three supporting paragraphs and a concluding paragraph.

To be effective, an argumentative essay must contain elements to help persuade the audience to see things from your perspective.

These components include a compelling topic, a balanced assessment, strong evidence, and persuasive language.