First Paragraphs
The most important paragraph of any essay is the first. Just as the old adage says, "First impressions last," too, first paragraphs determine first, whether the reader will continue reading and, next, whether the reader will read sympathetically. Either way, your best effort has to go into that first paragraph. Of course if you have a great first paragraph and bomb all the following ones you will not fulfill your purpose, but, just the same, the greatest-not all the-effort should go to the initial paragraph.
First paragraph is
Your plan - noting the direction you will take the reader and most
importantly your own roadmap.
The definition of your subject - usually found in the thesis and the
context.
Your introduction. The positioning of your argument - also called
context (try for 3-4 sentences).
Your initiation to the reader - showing the reader you will "take
care of his need to understand."
A clue to your essay structure - noting what points you will examine.
Your chance to impress Your "day" in the sun. Your chance
to show your best stuff, beyond adolescent and into the intellectual world.
How do you begin?
DON'T - Use a dictionary definition. Argue the assignment. Whine. Ask a rhetorical question. Novelty is good, but be cute.
DO - Ask a SERIES of questions. Refer, accurately, to a recent dramatic event. SHOCK the reader by using abruptness or, perhaps, inappropriate language. Use a quotation.
OBSERVE HOW PROFESSIONALS BEGIN THEIR ESSAYS.
Each beginning should be fresh, newly invented, eye catching, engaging, fun, imaginative, well and correctly stated, experimental, true, and mature.
The first paragraph can be LOOSE, PERIODIC, use PARALELL structure, and/or
natural or rhetorical word order.
LOOSE paragraphs seem self-explanatory. They evolve meaning as they go along,
front loaded.
PERIODIC paragraphs hold the reader until the end when "all is revealed."
See M.L. King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
PARALLEL structure unifies the paragraph thought by casting ideas in similar
grammatical form like Lincolns, "a government of the people, for the
people and by the people. . ."
The first paragraph can be a bulleted paragraph:
Defining the context of the argument, definition, description or exposition
-
Stating the thesis clearly and concisely somewhere in the paragraph or early
in the second paragraph-
Developing the thesis with related (bulleted) argument or information so the
reader has an idea of "where" you are heading-
Transitioning to the next paragraph.
