English 101

Lecture Notes 10

Spring 2022

21 March

Lecture 10

1. Introduction paragraph

A. In a basic introduction you typically seek to do a

few things:

1. Hook: Get the reader’s interest and make them

want to read further

2. Transition from hook to thesis

3. (Optionally) provide limited background on the

topic about to be discussed

4. State your thesis

5. For this class, an intro should be one

paragraph of 4-6 sentences

6. Appropriate introduction length will scale with

the length of what you are writing. The intro for

a 3-5 page paper should usually be about a

paragraph or two; the intro for a book might be

chapter-length. Each chapter would then likely

have its own intro as well.

7. As you are reading in your daily life, be on

the lookout for intros. Most pieces of writing

have them.