Topics, Titles and Introductions

The introduction to your essay is critical to successfully communicating your ideas because it will outline and summarize your arguments and it identifies the topic that you are going to cover. This section will help you understand how the introductory paragraph and the thesis statement create interest and give direction to your essay.

Read and think

A few questions and answers about topic, titles and introductions

Example

The Man and the Sea, a sample essay with annotations to tell you what function each part of the essay is performing.

Your Turn

Your Turn for this unit currently has three different tasks: A web page where you can examine the functions an introduction can perform, a Word document asking you to take apart an introduction and a Word document asking you to write some different kinds of introductions

Review your work

After you have finished writing an introduction of your own, check this page for questions to help you critically examine your own work.