How to Start an Essay - The Pre-Writing Stage
Prewriting is an important step when it comes to writing an essay. It can help you organize your thoughts, develop a clear thesis statement, and even come up with creative ideas for your paper.
So if you’re not sure where to start when it comes to prewriting, here are some tips on how to get the most out of it.
Understand the Type of Essay
Before you start your prewriting, it’s important to understand the type of essay that you are writing. These types of essays, including argumentative, expository, and others, have different purposes and require different tones and styles.
So knowing what you are about to write can help you plan out what information will be relevant for the paper. Knowing the type of essay will also determine how complex or simple your prewriting process should be.
Brainstorm Ideas
Take some time to brainstorm ideas for your essay. Think about the topic and ask yourself questions such as “What do I want to say about this?” or “What are the different angles I can approach this from?”
It might also be helpful to jot down a few words or phrases that you associate with the essay topic. This can help you get your creative juices flowing and come up with ideas for your paper. This step will help you decide on the topic and the main point of your essay.
Do Some Research
Now that you have decided on the topic of your essay, take some time to do a bit of research. You can do that by finding relevant articles, books, and other sources that are related to your essay topic.
Gather relevant facts and figures so that you can back up your opinions with evidence in the essay. This will also help you build an argument for why you believe what you’re saying.
Organize by Making an Outline
Once you have some evidence, it’s time to start organizing them. Consider creating an outline of the main points that you want to make in your essay. You can also come up with topic sentences for your body paragraphs to include them in an outline.
This can help keep your thoughts organized and make it easier to write the essay.
By taking the time to do a bit of prewriting, your essay can make a strong argument for any point you’re trying to make.
How to Start an Essay Introduction?
An interesting introduction paragraph is your only chance to make readers stick to your essay. It also informs the readers about the purpose and point of your essay.
Only a strong introduction decides whether the audience will readthe rest of the essay. So you need to write an essay introduction that makes the reader continue till the end.
But how can you achieve that? .
Below are the tips that you need to follow to write the introduction.
- Open Your Essay With a Hook Statement
An essay hook is an attention-grabbing opening statement that grabs the reader’s interest and attention. Always start an introduction with a hook to make the college essay more appealing.
The following are the different types of hooks that can be used in an introduction paragraph:
- Quotation
- Question
- Anecdote
- Rhetorical Questions
- Statistics
- A Funny Statement
The type of hook that you can use in your essay completely depends on the topic of the essay.
If you are addressing a sad and serious issue, do not use a casual and funny statement. Likewise, if your topic is humorous, try to open it lightly.
So always try to hook your reader at the start.
- Provide Background Information
The background information about the topic is another essential element that must be added in the introduction. It is provided to make the audience familiar with the central theme and the topic.
Make sure not to share excessive information in the first paragraph as it might bore the audience. Just give a brief idea and let the readers move on to the body of the essay.
- Develop a Strong Thesis Statement
The last component of an introduction is the thesis statement. It is a 1-2 line sentence that discusses the main argument of the essay.
This statement is considered a road map of the essay and provides the readers with a specific direction to follow. It is written at the end of your introduction paragraph. The rest of the paragraphs contain evidence and examples to support your thesis statement.
- Check and Revise
Once you’ve written your essay, take the time to review and revise the introducion. Make sure that your intro is engaging and ties to all the points made in the body paragraphs.
Moreover, make sure your introduction is free of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Mistakes in the first part of your essay can really make a bad impression on your readers.
How To Start Essay Writing - How to Hook Effectively?
The importance of the hook statement can not be understated. So you need to spend some time to come up with the best one.
Read on to learn about different types of hooks and how you can use them to make your introduction more effective.
How to Start an Essay With a Question?
The easiest way to start the introduction is by asking an intriguing question from your readers. It will give an image of one-on-one conversation that helps to engage them.
Seeing such a question will make the audience look for the answer in the content. Moreover, starting an essay with a rhetorical question is also a great kickstart, but it does not provide any specific reply.
Example:
Check out the examples below to understand starting an essay with a question:
- Are you tired of paying taxes?
- Can you stand four more years of rising inflation?
- Would you like to be a part of the American Dream?
How to Start an Essay With a Quote?
A hook in the form of a quotation can also be used as an opening statement. It is used to explain and give a relevant idea related to the essay topic. However, ensure that the quote is obtained from a credible and reliable source.
A writer should also discuss the quotation in the body paragraphs to present his point of view and personal opinion clearly. Here are the tips to state the quote at the start of an essay.
- Do not use frequently used quotations.
- Explain how the quotation is related to the central argument.
- Select a quote that the target audience can easily understand.
Example:
Regarding survival rates for gladiators, Johnstone states:
“Gladiator shows were hardly the bloodbaths we see in modern films and TV programs. If there were five fights in a day, on average, only one would end in death.”
How to Start an Essay With a Fact?
Mentioning an interesting fact in the introductory paragraph helps to entertain the readers. They provide the context and historical context of the topic. Starting with a fact is especially useful in an expository essay, which aims to explain and discuss a concept.
For serious global issues, you can present shocking news or statistical figures from authentic sources. It will help you answer the question by proving your viewpoint correct.
Example:
Here’s an example of a factual hook about an essay on gun ownership in the United States.
Almost two-thirds of American adults lived in a home with at least one gun at some point in their lives.
Tell a Story - How to Start an Essay With an Anecdote?
Anecdotes are an effective way to engage the audience right from the beginning. It is about setting a short story that is used to reveal the important features of the theme.
If the anecdote is based on the writer’s personal life, it is a great way to connect the reader and the writer. This hook is also appropriate while writing a descriptive or narrative essay.
Nevertheless, keep in mind, the anecdote should be simple, short, to the point, and related to the main idea.
Example:
- Trapped in a hurricane of doubt, I searched for the eye of the storm. I had to calm down and seek a break from the failure.
- As I spoke with numerous professionals at the conference, I felt like French had been a part of my life for reading and writing since the very beginning.
Watch this video about the short explanation of how to write a hook statement:
Sentences on How to Start an Essay
Stating your point out of the blue won't get your point across effeectively. Whenever you start an introduction, body paragraph, or conclusion, you need to begin with transitional sentences.
Here ten sentence starters for writing that you can use at different points of your essay:
- Taking a closer look at the issue, it is clear that…
- It is essential to consider how…
- To understand this issue better, one must ask the question why?
- The key argument put forward in this essay is that…
- There are a variety of perspectives on this matter, each with its own merits.
- While there are many complex factors at play here, it is important to note that…
- To truly unravel the complexities of this issue, one must examine…
- This essay will argue that…
- By exploring the multifaceted nature of this issue, one can see that…
- From the evidence available, it is evident that...
How to Start an Essay - Examples - H2
Have a look at the following examples of how to start off an essay to get a detailed idea.
Mistakes to Avoid When Starting an Essay
The following mistakes must be avoided while starting an essay’s introduction.
- Avoid stating a monotonous definition in the first line of the essay, as it will be boring for the readers.
- Try to make the instructions short and to the point.
- Never introduce the main purpose of the argument in the beginning.
- Provide the information in the essay conclusion and introduction without specifying the major objective.
- Never write a thesis statement if you don’t have enough ideas to support it.
- Make sure to use the ideas that can be proved by examples or evidence.
- Avoid quoting extensively so that the choice of words may not be unclear.
This blog presented you with a few engaging ways on how to start an essay. Using these techniques will help the students to write an essay effectively.
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