Tutorial: Essay Introductions
Introduction
Looking at two example essays we will break the introduction down into the three parts: hook, overview, and thesis statement. Here is the prompt for the essay:
Below are two example introductions:
Example 1
Do you like hamburgers? I do. My mom tells me that eating hamburgers every day is not good for me. Fast food has been around for a long time. In this essay, I will tell you why eating fast food every day is bad for you.
Example 2
Every day after school my friends and I walk to an area of our town that has shops, restaurants, and a beautiful, three-tiered fountain. It is a central part of our town and is always bustling with people, especially in the afternoon when everyone is craving something to eat or drink. It was inevitable that fast-food restaurants would open in this area to compete for business from shoppers, people meeting each other, and school kids like us. In 2000, the first fast-food restaurant, Chicken Fluffy, opened in this area and it was immediately a popular place to gather. My friends and I would usually go there after school and order their famous chicken wings and milkshakes as we talked about our day and planned for the weekend. After an hour or so we all would go our separate ways to do homework and have dinner with our families. I never gave this ritual a second thought other than looking forward to spending time with my friends. The first McDonald’s opened in 1940 (Klein, 2019) and, just like Chicken Fluffy’s in my town, it became very popular, but there has always been competition in the fast-food industry. Every restaurant wants to be the one known as the fastest and tastiest, but some restaurants have traded fresh ingredients for food that is full of preservatives and chemicals because it is easier to prepare quickly. In recent years, some fast-food restaurants are trying to have more healthy options and provide a larger variety of fresh ingredients. For many, the convenience of eating at places like Chicken Fluffy and McDonald’s often wins out over healthier options or eating at home.
Paragraph Analysis
Click on the tabs below to review the key concepts of an introduction paragraph and answer questions about each.
Practice
Use the following new example introduction paragraph to answer the questions in Practice 1 and Practice 2 below.
Key Ideas
- Introductions have three parts: hook, overview, thesis statement
- The strongest hooks are personal anecdotes.
- Overviews should have at least one sentence for each body paragraph in the essay.
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The thesis statement:
- must be one statement
- can be proven with research
- sends a clear message which addresses the prompt
- written in 3rd person point of view
Apply
- At the end of each day, write a thesis statement about what happened in your life. Remember to follow the guidelines.
- Think of an event that happened in your life that would make a strong hook because it is a funny personal anecdote. What might be the topic of the essay it would represent?
- What personal anecdote would you tell to hook a reader into an essay that taught an important lesson about kindness or acceptance?
- Write an introduction to a five paragraph essay about your life. What three important events would you list in the overview sentences?