Okay, so you already know the basic details that belong in an opening paragraph of an
argumentative essay.
Somewhere in this paragraph you need to state your thesis—your argument—and give the
reader a sense of the main points you are going to make in order to support your thesis.
If you're just focusing on one or two main texts or writers, you'll also want to make
sure to mention them in here.
However, as we've discussed, sometimes you can have all the basic required elements but
still not write a truly effective, engaging, and A-level opening paragraph.
In this video, I'm going to call your attention to 4 additional strategies you can use to
draw the reader into your essay.
1.
In your opening paragraph, you can move from the specific to the general.
That is, you can start with an anecdote that's somehow related to your thesis.
An anecdote is a brief narrative example—often about a specific incident in your own life.
However, it can also be a created example.
Here's an example from one of my students' opening paragraphs.
She's still deciding on the thesis for her essay, but it might focus on how poets like
Billy Collins and Pamela Spiro Wagner provide busy college students with a way of slowing
down and appreciating simple things in a new, more profound light.
As busy college students, we walk through the halls in deep thought about our last class,
our next class and our homework for today, tomorrow and the rest of the week.
We study terms, charts and equations, take notes, write papers, write papers and write
more papers.
In most of our classes, we are just trying to get through it.
Each semester is a blur of memorizing necessary material in our brains for short term storage,
and dumping it after we get that needed grade.
What effect do you think this approach has the on reader?
It draws her into your essay and creates a vivid scene for you to imagine.
After these sentences, the writer is going to need to state her thesis and give the reader
a sense of the main points she's going to make to support her thesis.
Her thesis is going pack more of a punch given this initial anecdote because the reader will
already have a clear sense of how students are always rushing around and perhaps even
recognize that they might need to slow down.
2.
In your opening paragraph, you can move from the general to the specific.
This is also a very effective strategy.
Let me give you an example that's loosely based on another student's draft.
This student found herself very taken with Emily Dickinson's use of the word "distills"
and wants to focus on how two of the poets we are studying seem to go through a distilling
process in their poems.
This writer could start off her essay by describing the larger issue of her essay—the distilling
process.
She could briefly describe how manufacturers extract the essence of something through their
distilling process.
Then, she could describe how the poets she is focusing on in her essay go through a similar
distilling process when it comes to their language
and imagery.
3.
You can also start your essay by posing "a significant question or problem that serves
to focus" your essay (Princeton Writing Center handout).
If you are creating an argument about what makes the poetry of Billy Collins and Pamela
Spiro Wagner both easy to understand and complex, you might want to start with a question like
this one: Why is it that so many people are
afraid of poetry?
Then you could start providing an answer to that question and gently guide your reader
to Collins and Spiro Wagner who might help them overcome this fear of poetry because
of their commitment to remaining accessible.
You could also set up a problem.
That is, you could start by addressing the problem of difficult poetry and why it turns
off so many people.
Your thesis about Collins and Spiro Wagner would serve as the solution
to this problem.
4.
In your opening paragraph, you can also challenge common interpretations and beliefs.
Let me give you an example from an essay that's not on poetry.
This student is writing an essay on Gandhi's commitment to challenging the way some of
his fellow Indians were perpetuating oppression by treating members of other castes with disrespect.
So this student could begin his essay by discussing how most people think about Gandhi in terms
of all that he did to help his fellow Indians rid themselves of external oppression from
the British.
Then, he could move into what most people don't recognize.
The student could say: However, what is less recognized and equally important is the way
Gandhi refused to allow Indians to perpetuate oppression within their own communities.