Introductions: Study Guide (English Language 4.1)

What does an introduction have to do?

A reader who opens an argument knows nothing yet. They do not know who is speaking, what is being argued, why it matters now, or whether it is worth their time. The introduction is the part of the text that answers those silent questions. It has three jobs:

• Orient. Introduce the subject and, where it helps, the writer. After the introduction the reader knows what the argument is about and what conversation it belongs to.
• Engage. Give the reader a reason to keep reading. This may be a surprise, a question, a vivid image or a fact that bears on the reader’s own concerns.
• Focus. Point the reader toward the argument. An introduction may present the thesis outright. Even when it does not, it should leave the reader expecting the claim that is coming.

A useful way to hold this: an introduction is a doorway. A good doorway is not a room of its own. It frames what is inside and invites you through.

The strategies available to a writer

An introduction can use one strategy or combine several. The course framework lists them as: presenting the thesis, a quotation, an intriguing statement, an anecdote, a question, a statistic or data, contextualised information or a scenario. The table shows what each does well, and what it risks.

Strategy	What it does well	What can go wrong
Thesis first	Immediate clarity; suits a busy or expert audience	Can feel abrupt if the audience is hostile and needs persuading first
Quotation	Borrows authority or voices the view you will test	Quotation that is only loosely related, or never discussed again
Intriguing statement	Short, sharp, memorable; creates curiosity	Gimmick if the argument does not deliver on it
Anecdote	Makes an abstract issue human; builds sympathy	Too long, or typical of nothing
Question	Invites the reader to join the thinking	Vague or obviously rhetorical; “Have you ever wondered…?”
Statistic or data	Signals evidence and seriousness	A number with no source, scale or point
Contextual information	Orients readers who do not know the background	Turns into a history lecture
Scenario	Lets the reader imagine a situation, often a hypothetical one	Unrealistic or unrelated to the claim

None of these is “correct”. Each has a rhetorical effect, and the effect either suits the situation or it does not.

Choosing by rhetorical situation

The test of an introduction is the rhetorical situation from Unit 1: who is the audience, what is the writer’s purpose, and what is the moment (context and exigence)? Two writers can argue the same claim and open in opposite ways, both correctly.

Take the claim “Schools should start later in the morning.”

• To a school board worried about bus costs, a writer might open with contextual information and a statistic: how many routes would change, what other districts did. These readers decide by practicalities.
• To parents at a community meeting, a scenario or anecdote may be better: a familiar scene of a tired teenager at the kitchen table at 6:30 a.m. These readers decide by recognition.
• To a science-minded newspaper readership, a short intriguing statement about adolescent body clocks, followed by the thesis, would orient and engage together.

The question to ask is never “which strategy is fanciest?” but “what does this reader need before they can listen to this claim?”

Reading an introduction

When you read an argument you are asked to describe what an introduction does and why. Name the strategy, then name its effect on the audience in terms of orienting, engaging or focusing. “The writer opens with a question” is a label. “The writer opens with a question that places the reader in the position of the people the argument is about, so they feel the stakes before the claim arrives” is an analysis.

Weak and strong introductions side by side

Imagine the writing task: Argue whether school should start later in the morning.

Weak (Marlbridge example):

Since the beginning of time, people have argued about school start times. In this essay I will discuss both sides of this issue. School start times are an important topic that affects many people.

Strong (Marlbridge example):

At 6:40 on a January morning, a bus driver switches on her headlights for a route that will not see sunrise for another hour. The teenagers she collects will spend first period with their heads on their desks, and their teachers will call it laziness. It is closer to biology: adolescents’ body clocks tend to shift later at puberty, so a first bell before dawn asks them to learn at the hour they are least ready to. Districts should therefore move the first bell later.

Feature	Weak version	Strong version
Orients	A sweeping, empty claim (“since the beginning of time”)	A specific scene and subject
Engages	Nothing is at stake for the reader	A concrete image, then a surprising reframing (“not laziness”)
Focuses	Announces “both sides” and no position	A clear, defensible claim in the last sentence
Speaks to the audience	To no one in particular	To teachers, parents and boards who may blame students
Wasted words	“In this essay I will…”	None; each sentence does one job

Notice what the weak version does wrong in the framework’s own terms. It orients only vaguely, gives the reader no reason to care, and tells the reader what the essay will do rather than what it will argue.

Worked example 1: rewriting an introduction for a stated audience

Task. The writer must argue that a town library should keep its Saturday opening hours, in a letter to the town council. The draft introduction is:

Libraries are very important places. Many people use libraries. I think the library should stay open on Saturdays because it is good.

Step 1: Diagnose against the three jobs.

• Orient: “Libraries are very important places” could introduce any essay about any library. The reader does not know which library, which decision or why now.
• Engage: nothing in it would interest a councillor who must save money.
• Focus: there is a position (“should stay open”), but the reason is “it is good”, which gives the reader nothing to evaluate.

Step 2: Decide what this audience needs. Councillors are deciding a budget. They respond to numbers, consequences and the people affected. So the introduction should name the decision (context), put a concrete cost-benefit in front of them (data), and state the claim.

Step 3: Draft. Suppose the writer has gathered, as an invented but plausible example for this exercise, that 410 people visited the branch on an average Saturday last year while the weekday average was 150.

The council’s proposal to close Millbrook Library on Saturdays would save about a day’s wages for two staff members. It would also close the building on the one day when 410 people visit, nearly three times the weekday average of 150. Because Saturday is when working parents, shift workers and students without a quiet home are able to use the library at all, the council should keep Saturday hours and look for savings elsewhere.

Step 4: Check against the three jobs.

• Orients: the decision (closing Saturdays), the place, the stakes.
• Engages: a contrast of cost and use that a councillor cannot ignore.
• Focuses: a claim with a reason the reader can test, and a hint that the essay will discuss who uses the library.

The strategy here is contextual information plus data, chosen because the audience decides by evidence. If the same writer were speaking to a crowded public meeting, a short anecdote about one user might do more.

Worked example 2: describing what a published introduction does

Susan B. Anthony delivered a speech in 1873 after she was indicted for voting in the 1872 presidential election. Her speech begins:

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote.

(Susan B. Anthony, “On Women’s Right to Vote”, 1873)

Step 1: Name the strategy. She opens with a direct statement of the situation: contextual information about herself and her predicament, stated as an intriguing fact (a citizen indicted for voting).

Step 2: Describe the effect on the audience, job by job.

• Orient: the audience learns immediately who is speaking and why she is speaking. “I stand before you tonight under indictment” locates the whole speech in a real legal case.
• Engage: the audience hears an unusual claim. A person on trial is addressing them, which builds attention and some sympathy before any argument is made. The word “alleged” is also strategic: it signals that she will contest the charge.
• Focus: the sentence ends on the clause “without having a lawful right to vote”. That clause sets up the question the speech will go on to answer: whether she in fact had that right.

Step 3: Link to the argument. Anthony states her purpose a little later in the same speech, saying it will be her work that evening to prove that in voting she “simply exercised” her rights as a citizen. The opening is built so that this thesis arrives as the answer to a problem the audience already feels.

Step 4: Write the analysis sentence. Anthony begins with her indictment so that her audience, before hearing a single argument, sees a citizen being punished for an act she will go on to defend as her right, which gives her thesis its urgency.

Common misconceptions

• “An introduction must start broad and narrow down to the thesis.” Not necessarily. That “funnel” is one possible shape, and it often produces empty generalities. Many strong introductions start narrow and specific.
• “I should tell the reader what I am going to do.” Phrases such as “In this essay I will…” describe a task. An introduction should present the subject and, if appropriate, the claim, not narrate the structure.
• “A quotation makes any introduction sophisticated.” Only if the quotation is relevant, accurately used and returned to. A decorative quotation that is never discussed is a missed opportunity.
• “A question is a safe opener.” Generic rhetorical questions (“Have you ever wondered…?”) are weak. A good question is specific and implies a stake.
• “The thesis must be the last sentence.” It is often there, but it can be elsewhere, and in some arguments it is deliberately delayed.
• “There is one right opening for each topic.” The right opening is the one that suits this audience, this purpose and this context.

Where this leads

Introductions are only half of a frame. Topic 4.2 covers the other half, the conclusion, and Topic 4.3 shows how a thesis in the introduction can also preview the line of reasoning. To check your understanding, try the practice questions, skim the revision notes, then work through the checklist.