OPVAA header
Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs

Struggling with writing? Excellence in Learning at DCU

ExL@DCU

Developing the introduction



Another advantage of writing a coherent core statement (or topic sentence) is that you can use it to develop your introduction.  However, some people prefer to defer writing the introduction to
the assignment until they have finished writing the main body of the essay. Either way, the introduction will probably undergo a number of revisions.As well as introducing your topic and your central issue or argument you should also explicitly establish the context, the frame within which you will approach your subject (since the subject does not exist in a vacuum).  In this way you simultaneously narrow your topic.  Below is an example.
When Gustave Flaubert’s novel, Madame Bovary, was published in 1857, critics condemned the book as immoral.  The novel was subsequently banned on sexual grounds. In the trial, Imperial Advocate Ernest Pinard said, "No gauze for him, no veils - he gives us nature in all her nudity and crudity."
The paragraph would go on, but as you can see, Flaubert’s novel (the topic, or subject) is introduced in the context of the critical and moral controversy its publication engendered.

Finally, many students ask what it is that makes a good opening.  There are numerous options: you could start with a quotation, an image, a question or an anecdote.  The most important thing to remember here is that the opening you choose must be directly related to your focus.  There is no point in using a snappy quotation that does not in any way help establish context for your writing assignment or that later plays no part in your thinking.  This will only mislead readers and blur the focus.  In order to be as direct and specific as you can be you should avoid two kinds of openings:
  1. The ‘since the beginning of time’ type opening which gives a long run-in to the topic.  For example: ‘Ever since the dawn of time, human beings have struggled to balance the need for freedom against the need for security’.  What is being talked about here?  Some new innovative consumer product or a psychological theory?
  2. Similar to the above is the kind of opening that starts with something broad and general and works its way down (eventually!) to a specific topic. For example, if your essay is an argument about censorship relating to a particular novel, it is not a good idea to begin with a lengthy generalisation on literature!