The introduction

• topic sentence
• elaboration
• thesis statement

Every argued text requires an introduction. For texts of moderate length, a rule of thumb is that the introduction should comprise about an eighth of the whole. Thus the introduction to a 1,000-word text will contain about 125 words; the introduction to a 20,000- word dissertation will on this reckoning have around 2,500 words, and is thus certain to appear as a chapter in its own right.

Obviously, the introduction is that part of a text that appears first in the final version. This is not to say that the introduction is always the first to be written: many skilled writers prefer to write the introduction last, once they know what they are going to be introducing. This is a matter of personal style. What is common to all good writes, however, is that their introductions fully prepare the reader for what is to follow. Having reached the end of the introduction, the reader must feel entirely confident that the subsequent paragraphs and sections will grow organically from what he has read up to that point. He may be surprised by what he reads in the subsequent paragraphs, but he may not be disoriented.

The introduction thus has a preparatory function. It serves to provide the background information that the reader will require if he is to make sense of the remainder of the text. As a writer, you will here have to be especially sensitive to what the reader can be expected to know already and what will be new to him. A gradual build-up, progressing from the known to the unknown, is well-suited to equipping the reader to assimilate the information to be offered in the body of the text. This cognitive (or information-based) function goes hand in hand with a rhetorical (or persuasive) function: a successful introduction not only has a logical progression, but also serves to whet the reader’s appetite for the intellectual fare on offer.

In the rest of this section, we shall concentrate on the one-paragraph introduction, of the type that is suitable for a text of moderate length (approx. 1,000 words). Suffice it to say at this point that a paragraph is a unit of text intermediate between the sentence and the entire text. It is typographically recognizable as a block of text; the first line of which is indented. The only exception to this rule is formed by introductory paragraphs, the first line of which is not indented. In all other respects, however, introductory paragraphs are like any other paragraph. For example, they show what is called inner coherence; in other words, each paragraph deals with one issue. That issue is presented at the beginning of the introductory paragraph in the so-called topic sentence. What follows the topic sentence is a treatment of the issue in a series of linked sentences termed the elaboration. The high point of any paragraph comes at the end, in the thesis statement, which presents the conclusion of the preceding elaboration.

Let us consider this tripartite structure (topic sentence – elaboration – thesis statement) at work in introductory paragraphs. Consider the following introduction: