Writing the Introduction

The introduction to a research paper should accomplish two purposes:

1. It should grab the reader’s attention

2. It should present the paper’s main idea or thesis

In addition, the introduction may define key terms, supply necessary background information, or both.

Capturing the Reader’s Attention

There are many ways to capture a reader’s attention in an introduction. You can begin with a startling or unusual fact, with a question, with an anecdote (a brief story that makes a point), or with an analogy (a comparison between the topic and something with which the reader is already familiar).

Providing Background Information

Sometimes in order for your readers to understand your thesis statement, you will have to provide some additional background information. In the introduction you need only supply the information needed to understand the thesis.

EXAMPLE:

Marcus’s thesis statement for his paper on the Massachusetts 54^th Infantry Regiment was, “Although many Yankee soldiers lost their lives in the charge on Fort Wagner, and although the Confederates technically won the battle, the charge of the Massachusetts 54^th was a great victory for the North and for the antislavery movement.” Since some reader may not have heard of the Massachusetts 54^th or of Fort Wagner, Marcus decided to open with some background information:

On July 18, 1863, at the height of the Civil War, the men of the African-American 54^th Massachusetts infantry attacked a South Carolina earthwork known as Fort Wagner or Battery Wagner. When the fighting was done, nearly half of those men lay dead in what was by all accounts a massacre, an overwhelming victory for the Confederacy. However, the African-American soldiers of the 54^th had fought as free men. So, though many of these Yankee soldiers lost their lives in the charge, and although the Confederates technically won the battle, the charge of the Massachusetts 54^th was a moral if not a military, victory for the North and for the anti slavery movement.