Introduction-

First sentence or two needs to be a “hook” or an attention grabber. This sentence needs to grab your audience’s attention and pertain to your topic. This sentence should never be anything lame, such as “My paper is about…” It can be

-a startling (true) statistic -a short story dealing with your topic

-a rhetorical question -a direct quote (if writing about lit or a researched topic)

-a few descriptive words about topic

After your hook, you need one to two sentences establishing your topic and your opinion regarding that topic.

Last sentence: Thesis statement: sometimes called a preview. This is where you tell your reader in one sentence exactly what you are going to write about in your essay. It must have three parts (because you will have three body paragraphs in your essay) and it must be strong enough to stand alone. This means if I don’t read anything in your intro except your thesis statement, I would know exactly what your paper is about.

Good Example: I will be discussing AIDS, how the disease effects the body, ways to protect yourself from contracting it, and advances in treating HIV and the AIDS virus.

Bad Example: This paper is about AIDS. OR-

I will talk about this disease and its effects.

You need to think of your introduction as your first impression on your reader. It should be interesting for them to read. You really want to stimulate your reader’s interest to continue reading your paper. Your intro should begin with some remarks to get your reader’s attention, present general facts or ideas about your subject, and should gradually narrow its focus to lead to your thesis statement.

Body-

The next three paragraphs are the main part of the essay. It’s like the meat in a sandwich. Each paragraph represents one sub-point mentioned in your thesis statement. Each paragraph MUST begin with a strong topic sentence. This sentence will let the reader know what the topic of your paragraph is (thus the name “topic sentence” ooh, ahh…).

Each body paragraph must have AT LEAST 5 sentences giving support to your topic. You need to make sure you don’t stray from your topic sentence in the rest of the paragraph. If your first sentence is “The holidays are a time when many feel depression,”

you must focus on how the holidays cause depression and not discuss seasonal effect disorder or biological causes.

You always have three body paragraphs in each essay in this class.

Conclusion-

This is your last chance to make your impression on your reader. Therefore, you should draw together all that has come before in your essay. First you restate your thesis in a general way.

Example:

I have discussed many aspect of the AIDS virus.

Or-

I have covered the AIDS virus and its many effects.

Make sure you briefly review your main ideas after restating your topic. You should also include any final opinions and tie up any loose ends about your topic. The purpose of a conclusion is to give a paper closure, so you don’t want to stop abruptly. Always end your paper with a punch. You need some kind of final statement that lets the reader clearly see that you are finished. Avoid writing something really lame and boring like, “Thank you for reading my paper.” Ugh. Your last statement should be strong and topic related.

**The form never changes, only your topic does.

KEEP THIS IN YOUR NOTES!