Introductions

There are no precise rules about what should and should not go into the introduction of an essay. But some of the functions of an introduction may be conceptualised as follows:

• give a summary of what the essay will be about
• provide an explanation of how the title will be interpreted
• present the central idea of the assignment
• give the background to the essay by providing some historical context
• relate the assignment to other work in the field

Once you have developed some confidence in writing essays you may also use the introduction to:

• make a bold or controversial statement to grab your readers attention (the rest of the essay then needs to justify or fill this out)
• present a concrete example or story which the piece will elaborate on or explain
• convey the writer's own personal relationship to the material presented

In order to help you think more about the role of the introduction in a piece of writing, examine the following three introductions (each is taken from the e-journal Sociological Research Online), and then try to answer the questions below. If you want to read the whole article then follow the web links provided.

example 1| example 2 | example 3

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Questions

1) Of the three introductions reproduced above, which two are most similar and why?

2) Looking back at the list of possible functions of introductions, what would you say were the main functions of each of these introductions?

3) Which of the introductions did you find most interesting and why?

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