MKUBiskra

Department of Foreign Languages/English

Third year /WRITTEN EXPRESSION
Instructor: Dr. Meddour Mostefa

Introductory paragraph

An essay introduction stimulates the readers’ attention and informs them about the topic of the
essay. Considering these four purposes of the introductory paragraph helps you get started.

 It introduces the topic of the essay

 It gives the general background of the topic
 It often indicates the overall plan of the essay
 It should arouse the readers’ interest in the topic

It has two major parts: General statements and thesis statement. In the general statements part, the
writer grabs the readers’ attention first with a hook sentence. Next, a few sentences as background
information follow the hook. The second part; the thesis statement is the most important sentence
in the essay as it states the main topic and often lists the major subtopics that will be discussed in the
essay. It also indicates the essay’ method of development.

1. The hook

“The hook is one or more sentences that get the reader's attention. A hook can be a famous quote, a
broad statement, a question, a statistic, an anecdote or short story, or an interesting piece of
information” (Folse, Muchmore-Vokoun, and Vestri Solomonvestri Solomon 2014: 5). The hook is the
opening sentence which aims to engage the readers in the subject of the essay. The choice of the
hook depends on the style of the writer and purpose of writing.

a. A famous quote
In Shakespeare’s words, “to be or not to be, that’s the question”. Peoples’ ultimate goal in
life is to prove their existence and to show their achievements […….].

b. A broad statement (funnel introduction)

Maintaining strong family bounds is undoubtedly necessary for the psychological and social
stability of the child’s life.

c. A question
In certain moments of solitude, one keeps on wondering how we can get over and have a
new start. Do we need to be superheroes to handle the ups and downs of life?

d. A statistic
The 2017’ UNESCO annual report on child abuse estimates 40150 children who were victims
of homicide. In certain low-income countries, the number is getting higher [….].

e. Anecdote/short story
I still remember the day of my grandmother’s funeral; all the details are stuck in my memory.
It was a normal Spring Saturday morning when I was […….].

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 f. Interesting piece of information
Each year for the past few decades during the Southern Hemisphere spring, chemical
reactions cause ozone in the southern polar region to be destroyed rapidly and severely. This
depleted region is known as the “ozone layer”.

 ACTIVITY
Read these introductions and find out the type of the hook. (All excerpts are taken from
(Folse, Muchmore-Vokoun, and Vestri Solomonvestri Solomon 2014)

1.

2.

3.

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 4.
5.

1.1. Connecting information

To help the reader connect to the topic of the essay, the writer follows the hook with two to five
sentences as background information to further explain, comment or illustrate for the hook
sentence. The aim is to lead the reader to the thesis statement. Here is an example (Robitaille and
Connely 2007: 95).

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 1.2. Thesis statement

The thesis statement is generally the last part of the essay which carries the most important
sentence (s) as it presents the main idea and often the sub ideas of the essay as well as the method
of development. A thesis statement should not be neither too broad nor too narrow. Thus, it has to
fit the length of the essay and adequately presents the main focus of the essay (Oshima and Hogue
1998; Robitaille and Connely 2007).

Compare these two theses statements:

1. Education is important to children for many reasons. (too broad)

2. Early schooling gives young learners many advantages. (well-focused)

1. People are unhealthy for many reasons. (too broad)

2. The diet of many American teenagers is unhealthy. (adequate focus)

There are two types of thesis statement: direct and indirect/ stated and implied.

The direct thesis gives the outline (subdivisions) of the essay. It is also called blueprinted thesis.
Following Robitaille and Connely (2007: 100),

A blueprinted thesis lists in a series the major points the essay will develop. The points
should be listed in the order that they will appear in the body paragraphs. The list may
appear in the thesis or in a separate sentence after the thesis. The major points in the series

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 must be parallel. In other words, areas listed in the thesis should be expressed in the same
grammatical form.

Consider these thesis statements:

1. The countryside is the ideal place to take kids for spring vacation because of its weather,
landscape and peoples’ culture.
2. Entrepreneurship becomes very important to the national economy as it creates new
businesses, improves the national income and creates social change.
3. Apple is far away better than Samsung in terms of high security, constant software updates
and smooth operation.

The indirect thesis (implied) does not contain specific information (subdivisions) of the main idea;
however, the topic is clearly expressed. See these statements.
1. Unemployment is increasingly threatening the economic status of the country which requires
immediate solutions.
2. The online learning is proved to be the perfect substitution for classroom instruction as a
requirement for social distancing.
3. Though they are geographically distant, Japan and The USA share more than they differ.

ACTIVITY

Make these implied thesis statements blueprinted by adding parallel subtopics to the main idea.
1. Smartphones have radically changed our lives.
2. My parents are the source of my inspiration.
3. The advantage of vegetarian diet makes it the perfect choice of many celebrities.