what are some good ways to start an essay

How to Begin an Essay: 13 Engaging Strategies

ThoughtCo / Hugo Lin

Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
B.A., English, State University of New York

An effective introductory paragraph both informs and motivates. It lets readers know what your essay is about and it encourages them to keep reading.

There are countless ways to begin an essay effectively. As a start, here are 13 introductory strategies accompanied by examples from a wide range of professional writers.

State Your Thesis Briefly and Directly

But avoid making your thesis a bald announcement, such as "This essay is about...".

"It is time, at last, to speak the truth about Thanksgiving, and the truth is this. Thanksgiving is really not such a terrific holiday...." (Michael J. Arlen, "Ode to Thanksgiving." The Camera Age: Essays on Television . Penguin, 1982)

Pose a Question Related to Your Subject

Follow up the question with an answer, or an invitation for your readers to answer the question.

"What is the charm of necklaces? Why would anyone put something extra around their neck and then invest it with special significance? A necklace doesn't afford warmth in cold weather, like a scarf, or protection in combat, like chain mail; it only decorates. We might say, it borrows meaning from what it surrounds and sets off, the head with its supremely important material contents, and the face, that register of the soul. When photographers discuss the way in which a photograph reduces the reality it represents, they mention not only the passage from three dimensions to two, but also the selection of a point de vue that favors the top of the body rather than the bottom, and the front rather than the back. The face is the jewel in the crown of the body, and so we give it a setting." (Emily R. Grosholz, "On Necklaces." Prairie Schooner , Summer 2007)

State an Interesting Fact About Your Subject

" The peregrine falcon was brought back from the brink of extinction by a ban on DDT, but also by a peregrine falcon mating hat invented by an ornithologist at Cornell University. If you cannot buy this, Google it. Female falcons had grown dangerously scarce. A few wistful males nevertheless maintained a sort of sexual loitering ground. The hat was imagined, constructed, and then forthrightly worn by the ornithologist as he patrolled this loitering ground, singing, Chee-up! Chee-up! and bowing like an overpolite Japanese Buddhist trying to tell somebody goodbye...." (David James Duncan, "Cherish This Ecstasy." The Sun , July 2008)

Present Your Thesis as a Recent Discovery or Revelation

"I've finally figured out the difference between neat people and sloppy people. The distinction is, as always, moral. Neat people are lazier and meaner than sloppy people." (Suzanne Britt Jordan, "Neat People vs. Sloppy People." Show and Tell . Morning Owl Press, 1983)

Briefly Describe the Primary Setting of Your Essay

"It was in Burma, a sodden morning of the rains. A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanting over the high walls into the jail yard. We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages. Each cell measured about ten feet by ten and was quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot of drinking water. In some of them brown silent men were squatting at the inner bars, with their blankets draped round them. These were the condemned men, due to be hanged within the next week or two." (George Orwell, "A Hanging," 1931)

Recount an Incident That Dramatizes Your Subject

"One October afternoon three years ago while I was visiting my parents, my mother made a request I dreaded and longed to fulfill. She had just poured me a cup of Earl Grey from her Japanese iron teapot, shaped like a little pumpkin; outside, two cardinals splashed in the birdbath in the weak Connecticut sunlight. Her white hair was gathered at the nape of her neck, and her voice was low. “Please help me get Jeff’s pacemaker turned off,” she said, using my father’s first name. I nodded, and my heart knocked." (Katy Butler, "What Broke My Father's Heart." The New York Times Magazine , June 18, 2010)

Use the Narrative Strategy of Delay

The narrative strategy of delay allows you to put off identifying your subject just long enough to pique your readers' interest without frustrating them.

"They woof. Though I have photographed them before, I have never heard them speak, for they are mostly silent birds. Lacking a syrinx, the avian equivalent of the human larynx, they are incapable of song. According to field guides the only sounds they make are grunts and hisses, though the Hawk Conservancy in the United Kingdom reports that adults may utter a croaking coo and that young black vultures, when annoyed, emit a kind of immature snarl...." (Lee Zacharias, "Buzzards." Southern Humanities Review , 2007)

Use the Historical Present Tense

An effective method of beginning an essay is to use historical present tense to relate an incident from the past as if it were happening now.

"Ben and I are sitting side by side in the very back of his mother’s station wagon. We face glowing white headlights of cars following us, our sneakers pressed against the back hatch door. This is our joy—his and mine—to sit turned away from our moms and dads in this place that feels like a secret, as though they are not even in the car with us. They have just taken us out to dinner, and now we are driving home. Years from this evening, I won’t actually be sure that this boy sitting beside me is named Ben. But that doesn’t matter tonight. What I know for certain right now is that I love him, and I need to tell him this fact before we return to our separate houses, next door to each other. We are both five." (Ryan Van Meter, "First." The Gettysburg Review , Winter 2008)

Briefly Describe a Process That Leads Into Your Subject

"I like to take my time when I pronounce someone dead. The bare-minimum requirement is one minute with a stethoscope pressed to someone’s chest, listening for a sound that is not there; with my fingers bearing down on the side of someone’s neck, feeling for an absent pulse; with a flashlight beamed into someone’s fixed and dilated pupils, waiting for the constriction that will not come. If I’m in a hurry, I can do all of these in sixty seconds, but when I have the time, I like to take a minute with each task." (Jane Churchon, "The Dead Book." The Sun , February 2009)

Reveal a Secret or Make a Candid Observation

"I spy on my patients. Ought not a doctor to observe his patients by any means and from any stance, that he might the more fully assemble evidence? So I stand in doorways of hospital rooms and gaze. Oh, it is not all that furtive an act. Those in bed need only look up to discover me. But they never do." ( Richard Selzer , "The Discus Thrower." Confessions of a Knife . Simon & Schuster, 1979)

Open with a Riddle, Joke, or Humorous Quotation

You can use a riddle , joke, or humorous quotation to reveal something about your subject.

" Q: What did Eve say to Adam on being expelled from the Garden of Eden? A: 'I think we're in a time of transition.' The irony of this joke is not lost as we begin a new century and anxieties about social change seem rife. The implication of this message, covering the first of many periods of transition, is that change is normal; there is, in fact, no era or society in which change is not a permanent feature of the social landscape...." (Betty G. Farrell, Family: The Making of an Idea, an Institution, and a Controversy in American Culture . Westview Press, 1999)

Offer a Contrast Between Past and Present

"As a child, I was made to look out the window of a moving car and appreciate the beautiful scenery, with the result that now I don't care much for nature. I prefer parks, ones with radios going chuckawaka chuckawaka and the delicious whiff of bratwurst and cigarette smoke." (Garrison Keillor, "Walking Down The Canyon." Time , July 31, 2000)

Offer a Contrast Between Image and Reality

A compelling essay can begin with a contrast between a common misconception and the opposing truth.

"They aren’t what most people think they are. Human eyes, touted as ethereal objects by poets and novelists throughout history, are nothing more than white spheres, somewhat larger than your average marble, covered by a leather-like tissue known as sclera and filled with nature’s facsimile of Jell-O. Your beloved’s eyes may pierce your heart, but in all likelihood they closely resemble the eyes of every other person on the planet. At least I hope they do, for otherwise he or she suffers from severe myopia (near-sightedness), hyperopia (far-sightedness), or worse...." (John Gamel, "The Elegant Eye." Alaska Quarterly Review , 2009)

'Whack at Your Reader at Once': Eight Great Opening Lines
What Is a Compelling Introduction?
How to Structure an Essay
Hookers vs. Chasers: How Not to Begin an Essay
Development in Composition: Building an Essay
Examples of Great Introductory Paragraphs
How To Write an Essay
How to Write a Good Thesis Statement
How to Write a Great Essay for the TOEFL or TOEIC
Write an Attention-Grabbing Opening Sentence for an Essay
How to Develop and Organize a Classification Essay
6 Steps to Writing the Perfect Personal Essay
A Guide to Using Quotations in Essays
What Is Expository Writing?
The Introductory Paragraph: Start Your Paper Off Right

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How To Start An Essay (With 20 Great Examples)

Starting your essay is probably the most difficult thing to do in the whole writing process.

Facing a blank page and unsure how to start your essay? Crafting a compelling essay isn’t innate for everyone. While it’s about presenting clear ideas, even top students can struggle. For many, meeting deadlines or ensuring quality becomes daunting, leading them to consult professionals like do my essay cheap . These experts whip up top-tier essays swiftly. A standout essay can elevate your academic status, with the introduction being the pivotal hook. Many opt to hire essay writers for that impeccable start. But crafting an engaging intro is doable. Want to captivate your readers immediately? Or impress academic panels? If the task still feels daunting, there’s always the option to buy assignments online for guaranteed quality. But let’s explore ways to start an essay on your own.

How to start your essay? – The most straightforward advice

In his famous book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” , Stephen King said: “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” So the best thing to do is to start writing as soon as you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just sit down and write anything, because the Muse comes to those who are brave enough to start. Maybe you’ll throw half of it away, but at least you’ll have something to hang on to.

How to begin your essay? – The lengthier and more appropriate advice

The aim of an academic essay is usually to persuade readers to change their minds about something. It can also be a descriptive, expository, argumentative, or narrative essay .

But regardless of the format of the essay , the introduction should still have these basic ingredients:

Introduce the topic – let the reader know what is it about straight away.
Put the topic in an appropriate context. Frame it, and provide some background information.
Narrow down the focus. If your essay is too broad, you’ll lose the interest of the reader and fail to address the important issue.
Answer an important question or make a strong statement which you’ll defend throughout the essay.
Orientate the reader. In the beginning, you need to answer questions like who, what, when, and how. Remember that the reader probably doesn’t know all the facts that you do.
Briefly mention the main ideas you are going to discuss in the essay.

How long should an essay introduction be?

It all depends on the overall length of your essay. If it’s a standard, five-paragraph college essay , the introduction should only take one paragraph or 60-80 words. But if you’re writing something longer, for example, a five-page interpretation of a literary work, the introduction could take two to three paragraphs or 120-150 words. You can measure the length using a simple word counter but don’t obsess too much about the number. The crucial thing is to say what you need to say and impact the reader.

The aim of the introductory paragraph

The first paragraph is always tricky because it serves a double purpose. It has to state what the essay will be about, but it needs to hook the readers and motivate them to read on. That’s why you need a perfect balance between clinical precision and artistic flair.

If you truly want to learn how to begin an essay, there are three best ways to do it:

Read as many great essays as possible
Write as many great essays as possible
Check examples of great essay introductory paragraphs (that’s what you can see below)

20 Great examples and tips on how to start an essay:

1. describe a setting and start with an emotional punch.

“I’ve been to Australia twice so far, but according to my father, I’ve never actually seen it. He made this observation at the home of my cousin Joan, whom he and I visited just before Christmas last year, and it came on the heels of an equally aggressive comment.” – David Sedaris, Laugh, Kookaburra

2. Start with a deeply personal story from your childhood

“One Sunday morning when I was a boy, my father came out of his office and handed me a poem. It was about a honeybee counseling a flea to flee a doggy and see the sea. The barbiturates my father took to regulate his emotions made him insomniac, and I understood that he’d been awake most of the night, laboring over these lines, listing all the words he could think of ending in a long “e.” – Charles D’Ambrosio – Documents

3. Create a mysterious atmosphere

“Moths that fly by day are not properly to be called moths; they do not excite that pleasant sense of dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom which the commonest yellow-underwing asleep in the shadow of the curtain never fails to rouse in us.” – Virginia Woolf – Death of the Moth

4. Throw the reader straight into the middle of the events

“Earlier this summer I was walking down West End Avenue in Manhattan and remembered, with a sadness that nearly knocked me off my feet, just why I came to New York seven years ago and just why I am now about to leave.” – Meghan Daum – My Misspent Youth

5. Start with universal questions of life and death

“I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state.” – Roger Ebert – Go Gentle Into That Good Night

6. Start with a question and then answer it

“What is the charm of necklaces? Why would anyone put something extra around their neck and then invest it with special significance? A necklace doesn’t afford warmth in cold weather, like a scarf, or protection in combat, like chain mail; it only decorates. We might say, it borrows meaning from what it surrounds and sets off, the head with its supremely important material contents, and the face, that register of the soul.” – Emily R. Grosholz – On Necklaces

7. Start with irony

“In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.” – George Orwell – Shooting an Elephant

8. Begin by creating great expectations of what’s to come (use the introduction as bait)

“At a dinner party that will forever be green in the memory of those who attended it, somebody was complaining not just about the epic badness of the novels of Robert Ludlum but also about the badness of their titles. (You know the sort of pretentiousness: The Bourne Supremacy, The Aquitaine Progression, The Ludlum Impersonation, and so forth.) Then it happily occurred to another guest to wonder aloud what a Shakespeare play might be called if named in the Ludlum manner.” – Christopher Hitchens – Assassins of The Mind

9. Start with a puzzle (notice how you start to wonder who is she talking about in this introduction)

“The first time I heard her I didn’t hear her at all. My parents did not prepare me. (The natural thing in these situations is to blame the parents.) She was nowhere to be found on their four-foot-tall wood veneer hi-fi. Given the variety of voices you got to hear on that contraption, her absence was a little strange.” – Zadie Smith – Some Notes on Attunement

10. Start with dark humor

“When I was young, I thought Life: A User’s Manual would teach me how to live and Suicide: A User’s Manual how to die.” – Édouard Levé – When I Look at a Strawberry, I Think of a Tongue

11. Start with an unusual question that will pull the readers in

“Do you know what a twerp is? When I was in Shortridge High School in Indianapolis 65 years ago, a twerp was a guy who stuck a set of false teeth up his butt and bit the buttons off the back seats of taxicabs. (And a snarf was a guy who sniffed the seats of girls’ bicycles.)” – Kurt Vonnegut – Dispatch From A Man Without a Country

12. Commence by taking the reader into the world of mystery and awe

“The earliest experience of art must have been that it was incantatory, magical; art was an instrument of ritual. (Cf. the paintings in the caves at Lascaux, Altamira, Niaux, La Pasiega, etc.) The earliest theory of art, that of the Greek philosophers, proposed that art was mimesis, imitation of reality.” – Susan Sontag – Against Interpretation

13. State your thesis at the very beginning – be clear about it

“Science has beauty, power, and majesty that can provide spiritual as well as practical fulfillment. But superstition and pseudoscience keep getting in the way providing easy answers, casually pressing our awe buttons, and cheapening the experience.” – Carl Sagan – Does Truth Matter – Science, Pseudoscience, and Civilization

14. Start with the obvious that’s not so obvious after all

“To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We’ve got it down to four words: “Do what you love.” But it’s not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated.” – Paul Graham – How To Do What You Love

15. Be unpredictable and highly intellectual

“Once, in a dry season, I wrote in large letters across two pages of a notebook that innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself. Although now, some years later, I marvel that a mind on the outs with itself should have nonetheless made painstaking record of its every tremor, I recall with embarrassing clarity the flavor of those particular ashes. It was a matter of misplaced self-respect.” – Joan Didion – On Self Respect

16. Get straight to the point

“The enormous, pungent, and extremely well marketed Maine Lobster Festival is held every late July in the state’s mid-coast region, meaning the western side of Penobscot Bay, the nerve stem of Maine’s lobster industry.” – David Foster Wallace – Consider The Lobster

17. Start in a deeply emotional, poetic manner

“The collie wakes me up about three times a night, summoning me from a great distance as I row my boat through a dim, complicated dream. She’s on the shoreline, barking. Wake up. She’s staring at me with her head slightly tipped to the side, long nose, gazing eyes, toenails clenched to get a purchase on the wood floor. We used to call her the face of love.” – Jo Ann Beard – The Fourth State of Matter

18. Begin by describing the place and circumstances in great detail

“Two blocks away from the Mississippi State Capitol, and on the same street with it, where our house was when I was a child growing up in Jackson, it was possible to have a little pasture behind your backyard where you could keep a Jersey cow, which we did. My mother herself milked her. A thrifty homemaker, wife, and mother of three, she also did all her cooking. And as far as I can recall, she never set foot inside a grocery store. It wasn’t necessary.” – Eudora Welty – The Little Store

19. Start by presenting an original idea (frame it in a way that the reader never considered before)

“Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in all cases. In Gandhi’s case the questions one feels inclined to ask are: to what extent was Gandhi moved by vanity — by the consciousness of himself as a humble, naked old man, sitting on a praying mat and shaking empires by sheer spiritual power — and to what extent did he compromise his principles by entering politics, which of their nature are inseparable from coercion and fraud?” – George Orwell – Reflections on Gandhi

20. Be clear-headed and approach the subject as objectively as possible

“Fantasists and zealots can be found on both sides of the debate over guns in America. On the one hand, many gun rights advocates reject even the most sensible restrictions on the sale of weapons to the public. On the other, proponents of stricter gun laws often seem unable to understand why a good person would ever want ready access to a loaded firearm. Between these two extremes, we must find grounds for a rational discussion about the problem of gun violence.” – Sam Harris – The Riddle of The Gun

Looking for an answer on how to start an essay is always tricky. You can get inspiration from many sources, but if you want to create an essay that packs a powerful punch from the very beginning, look inside yourself and come up with at least a few openings. Then, do your best to revise the opening paragraphs a couple of times so you end up with something truly impactful and attention-grabbing. Good luck! Next up, you may want to explore a guide on how to write a great 500-word essay .

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Essay Writing Guide

How To Start An Essay

How to Start an Essay- A Step-by-Step Guide

20 min read

How to Start an Essay Introduction?

In academic writing, the only chance to make readers stick to your paper is to start off with an interesting and engaging introductory paragraph.

The introduction typically starts by setting the stage and presenting vital background information about your specific topic.

Make your introduction catchy and interesting to both inform and motivate your readers. In this way, you can make your opening of the essay as compelling as possible.

Here are the steps that you need to follow to create an engaging essay introduction:

Start With an Interesting Hook
Provide Background Information
Write Your Thesis Statement
Map the Structure of Your Essay
Edit and Revise at the End

Let’s explain these steps in detail below.

Step 1: Start With an Interesting Hook

An essay hook is an opening statement that strives to grab people’s interest and attention. Always start an essay introduction with a hook to make your essay appealing. Here are different types of hooks that can be used in your introduction paragraph:

Rhetorical Questions
Or a random funny statement

The kind of hook that should be used in the essay depends on the topic and type of your essay. If addressing a serious and sad issue, do not use a casual or funny statement. It would be better to use quotations or anecdotes for such essays.

Likewise, if your topic is casual and humorous, try to open your essay lightly and casually. You can ask a funny question or start with a random funny statement.

You can also go through an interesting hook example and learn how to start a paragraph with interesting hooks.

Step 2: Provide Background Information

After starting the introduction with a compelling hook, you need to provide background information about your topic.

The background information is provided to familiarize your audience with the topic and the main argument.

Providing background knowledge in the introduction is not as easy as it seems. You have to stop yourself from sharing excess information in the introductory paragraph. This will bore your audience, and they will stop reading for sure. Just slightly give an idea about your topic and move on. You should not spoil the surprise coming for readers in the body paragraphs.

Step 3: Write Your Thesis Statement

The last component of an introduction is the thesis statement. It is a 1-2 line sentence statement that sums up the main concept and the argument of your essay. A thesis statement is considered a road map for your essay and provides your reader with an idea about the essay. It sets the tone of the essay, and the reader gets a slight hint about what they are going to read further.

The rest of the paragraphs that come before the conclusion are the body of your essay. They contain all the reasons and shreds of evidence that support and back your thesis statement.

Quick Tip: Always firmly present your argument in the thesis statement. Do not fill it with excessive information. The thesis statement is meant to convey your stance!

Step 4: Map the Structure of Your Essay

This is especially helpful for longer essays as it informs the readers about what is to come in each section of the essay. Keep this part concise and to the point, and give your readers a clear direction of your essay.

If your essay is short or discusses fewer ideas, this step may not be necessary. But, in the case of a longer essay, the mapping will inform the readers about the things being further discussed in the essay.

Step 5: Edit and Revise at the End

Once done with the writing, edit and revise the introduction. Make sure that you have added a compelling hook, adequate background information, and a thesis statement.

Furthermore, keep in mind that your introduction should be according to the type of essay that you are writing.

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How to Start an Essay With a Quote?

Here is how to start your essay with a quote:

Begin with a relevant quote that ties directly to your essay's topic.
Provide context for the quote to help readers understand its significance.
Properly cite the author, source, and publication date of the quote.
Transition smoothly from the quote to your thesis statement.
Analyze the quote's meaning and how it supports your argument.
Ensure the content of your essay's body aligns with the quote and analysis.

Here are some expert tips for putting a quote at the start of an essay:

Avoid adding frequently used quotes that are familiar to everyone.
Explain how the quote relates to your main point.
Select a quote that your target audience can easily understand and relate to.

How to Start an Essay With a Question?

The easiest way to start an introduction is to ask a question to your readers to engage them immediately. Asking questions gives an image of a one-on-one conversation, which is super effective. Seeing a question first will make your audience look for the answer in the content.

A rhetorical question is a good kickstart to your essay, as such a type of beginning is attractive to readers.

If you start with an intriguing question, the answer of which is not clear, then you should provide the answer within the text. Keep in mind that the rhetorical question does not require any specific reply.

How to Start an Essay With a Fact?

Including interesting facts or statistics in your introduction helps you to take hold of your readers. Facts and stats are good attention grabbers for any piece of writing. Everyone gets entertained by the interesting and fun facts as they provide the context and background information of the topic.

For serious issues that are global, you can present shocking statistics or news to instantly grab your reader’s attention.

Choose facts and figures from credible and trustworthy sources. Your facts should support or prove your point of view or argument being presented later on in the essay.

Starting an essay with a shocking fact from a credible source is an effective way to start an essay, followed by explanations to convince the readers.

How to Start an Essay With an Anecdote?

Another interesting way to start an essay is with a brief anecdote. It is about setting a short story at the start to show how it reveals the important features of your theme.

This hook is appropriate to use if you are writing descriptive or narrative essays. The anecdote should be short, simple, and to the point. Make sure it relates to the central idea of your essay.

Words To Start An Essay Introduction

Here are some effective words and phrases to begin an essay introduction:

Intriguingly: Intriguingly, the concept of...
Unquestionably: Unquestionably, the most critical issue is...
Surprisingly: Surprisingly, the data reveals...
Notably: Notably, this phenomenon has far-reaching implications.
Evidently: Evidently, the evidence suggests...
Arguably: Arguably, one of the most contentious topics is...
It is imperative to: It is imperative to address the issue of...
Historically: Historically, this problem has persisted for centuries.
In today's context: In today's context the relevance of this cannot be overstated.
To illustrate: To illustrate, consider the following example….
In contemporary society: In contemporary society, the issue of...
Remarkably: Remarkably, few have explored the implications of...
Undoubtedly: Undoubtedly, this problem warrants immediate attention.
Consequently: Consequently, this leads us to question...
In light of this: In light of this, it becomes evident that...
Fundamentally: Fundamentally, the core issue revolves around...
In recent years: In recent years, there has been a growing interest in...
In an ever-changing world: In an ever-changing world, it is crucial to consider...
To shed light on: To shed light on this matter, we will delve into...
As a result: As a result, we are compelled to explore the implications of…

Sentences To Start An Essay

Here are some interesting sentences to start an essay:

Have you ever wondered about the impact of climate change on our planet?
In a remote village nestled among the mountains, a young girl's journey began.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," said Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Shockingly, 70% of marine life is threatened by plastic pollution.
While some embrace technology, others yearn for a simpler, analog life.
Democracy, the cornerstone of modern societies, is often misunderstood.
A tranquil dawn, with the sun's first rays painting the sky in hues of gold.
Did you know that octopuses have three hearts and blue blood?
As a child, I often marveled at the stars, wondering about the cosmos.
Society teeters on the brink of a digital revolution that will redefine human existence.

How to Start an Essay - Examples

Examining various essay introduction examples provides valuable insights into captivating your reader's interest right from the start.

Check out these examples for guidance on crafting powerful opening lines.

How to Start an Informative Essay?

How to Start an Analysis Essay?

How to Start an Application Essay?

How to Start an Expository Essay?

How to Start an Analytical Essay?

How to Start an Essay About a Book?

How to start an Opinion Essay?

How to Start an Autobiography Essay?

How to Start an Essay on Climate Change?

How to Start an Essay on Covid-19?

How to Start an Essay About Women’s Rights?

How to Start a Paragraph in an Essay?

The best way to start a paragraph in an essay is to write the topic sentence. The topic sentence tells the reader what the paragraph is going to be about. After the topic sentence, the supporting details are further provided.

Read this example to know how to start a paragraph.

How to Start a Conclusion in an Essay?

To start a conclusion in an essay, you should write a rephrased thesis statement first. As it is the crux of your whole essay. Further on, the points discussed in the essay can be summarized one by one in the concluding paragraph.

Here is an example of how to write a conclusion to help you understand this better.

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Other Common Ways of Starting an Essay

Besides the ones given above, here are some common ways of beginning your essay on a strong and engaging footing.

Stating the Thesis Statement Briefly

Instead of adding your thesis statement plainly, make the tone engaging and keep it brief.

Beginning with an Interesting Discovery

Discoveries and little-known details always interest the readers. They are curious and they want to know more. This makes this kind of essay very interesting and irresistible for your readers.

Describe the Setting of Your Essay

Presenting the setting of your essay to set the mood of your audience. This helps them know where your essay is heading.

Recount an Event

Recount an event to add drama to your essay. This also helps the readers to connect with you on a deeper level.

Use the Narrative Delay Technique

This technique works best in piquing your audience’s interest and keeping them on the edge of their seats. However, do not linger on it too much and use this technique carefully.

Present a Historical Event in the Present Tense

Use historical present tense to add weightage to your narrative. It makes the readers feel as if the event is taking place at the present moment.

Describe a Process Briefly

Describe a process briefly that leads to your main essay topic.

Reveal a Secret

“How to start an essay about yourself for college?”

People are always interested in knowing secrets. This is what makes this technique so good. Use it to reveal some secrets about yourself, if you are writing an essay about yourself.

Present a Comparison between the Past and Present

It is a very effective technique as it helps the readers see the comparison between past and present situations.

Give a Contrast between Virtual & Actual Reality

There are many things that we believe to be true, a.k.a. Virtual reality. This technique helps you in presenting what a myth is and what reality is. Breaking the myths is an effective technique to grab someone’s attention.

Mistakes to Avoid When Starting an Essay

Here are a few mistakes that should be avoided for writing a great essay introduction.

Starting Without a Plan: Launching into your essay without a clear outline is a recipe for confusion.
Weak, Generic Hooks: Using clichés or dull openings that fail to grab your reader's attention.
Excessive Formality: Overloading your intro with formal language can bore your audience.
Info Overload: Bombarding readers with too much background information can overwhelm them.
Unclear Thesis: Failing to state your essay's purpose upfront leaves readers puzzled.
Irrelevant Quotes: Using quotes that don't connect directly to your topic is a misstep.
Ignoring Your Audience: Neglecting your audience's interests can lead to disengagement.
Procrastinating Intro: Leaving the intro for last often results in rushed, ineffective beginnings.
Repetitive Content: Repeating what's in the body of your essay makes the intro redundant.
Skipping Proofreading: Overlooking errors in grammar and punctuation undermines your intro's credibility.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good introduction sentence for an essay.

A good instruction sentence for an essay is one that captures the reader's attention with an interesting hook. After writing the hook, give them some context by providing background information that will help set up what is to come in later paragraphs or sections of the paper/essay.

Finally, conclude your introduction with a thesis statement that states both concisely and specifically what main point(s) are being made about this topic along with why it matters.

What are 3 ways of starting your essay?

The three most recommended ways to start off an essay are:

Quotation: By a famous person that fits the context of your essay.
Question: That engages the reader to find the answer in your essay.
Facts or Statistics: That is startling so that the reader’s attention can be grabbed.

What words can you use to start an essay?

Some words that can be used to start an essay are once, next, then, in fact, similarly, or a time word like first, second, third. You can also use sequential transitions to merge your hook to the rest of the introduction paragraph. These transition words include, for example, consequently, for this reason, or another addition transition.

What is a good paragraph starter?

A good paragraph starter is a brief yet complete topic sentence. The topic sentence should adequately give the reader an idea about what is going to be discussed in the rest of the paragraph. The topic sentence should also prove your thesis statement.

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How To Start An Essay -The Only Guide You'll Need

How To Start An Essay

To begin an essay effectively, use a captivating hook, provide context, present a clear thesis statement, outline the essay's structure, transition smoothly to the body, be concise, and revise for alignment with the content. A strong introduction engages readers and sets the tone for your essay.

This guide will help you if you’re stuck, so read on. Starting an essay can be difficult, and we’ve all had major writer’s block occasionally. But we will demystify it and give you all the practical help and guidance you’ll need to power through.

To commence your essay effectively, consider adopting these approaches:

Engage Your Audience : Start with an engaging element to capture your audience's interest. This could be an unexpected fact, a provocative query, an impactful quote, or a vivid brief story.
Set the Scene : Quickly provide the necessary background to frame your topic, highlighting its significance or intrigue.
State Your Central Argument : Articulate your central thesis or primary argument clearly. This will guide the direction of your essay and clarify your purpose to the reader.
Preview Your Essay's Structure : Briefly outline the organization of your essay, indicating the key points or arguments you intend to explore.
Smooth Transition : Seamlessly lead into the body of your essay with transitional phrases, preparing the reader for the forthcoming content.
Keep it Brief and Focused : Maintain brevity and focus in your introduction. Steer clear of extensive details or protracted background exposition.
Refine and Enhance : Once your essay is complete, reassess your introduction to ensure it is aligned with the overall content and effectively sets up your topic.

‍ Understanding The Craft: How To Start An Essay

The introduction paragraph can set the ENTIRE tone for your essay, so it’s more than important. By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to master it (hopefully).

The level of engagement your audience will feel throughout the essay and if they understand the message you’re conveying can be determined just by reading your introduction.

Remember how crucial an essay introduction is, as first impressions can be lasting.

Sharp Eye: Analyzing The Prompt

Before you go your ways to start an essay, you should fully grasp the prompt of the essay. By fully understanding the prompt, you won’t be led astray. Here’s a few simple things to remember:

Breaking down the question

Deconstruct your prompt to understand it fully. Highlight key terms and consider what each word truly means.

Interpret instructions carefully

Depending on the instructions, you should be aware of the differences in what they’re asking you for.

For example, a prompt that instructs you to “describe” will want different results from a prompt that asks you to “analyze.”

Research first

To help you understand your prompt better, you can do some research. Collect information like background information and the current relevance of the prompt.

This will add context to your understanding of it. This will give you a better and fuller perspective as well.

Creating A Hook That Hooks

A crucial part of your essay introduction and starting an essay is writing a good hook. Your hook is your attention-grabber, so it needs to literally hook your readers. Be mindful of these tips:

Use startling facts to shock readers.
Use provocative questions.
Use anecdotes or intriguing quotes.
Don’t forget to tailor your hook to your audience and your topic.

Writing A Great Thesis Statement

You don’t know how to start an essay correctly if you don’t know how to write a great thesis statement.

Need help? Writers at Studyfy will guide you with essay writing if you send a “ write an essay for me ” request, and they’ll do it instantly. Moving along, here’s what you need to keep in mind with your thesis statement:

Thesis concept

A thesis statement is a very clear and concise sentence.

It could be two sentences, too. It sums up and represents the core argument of your essay and serves as a guide for your writing and developing your arguments.

Do initial research to back up your thesis

By collecting evidence, examples, and facts, you can refine your essay and make it more accurate, compelling, and sophisticated.

Positioning your thesis

Ideally, you’d want to position your thesis statement at the end of your introduction.

It allows for a smooth reading flow, and it introduces the main argument and purpose of the essay before the reader moves on to the body paragraph.

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How To Begin An Essay: Outlining Your Main Points

An outline is like a roadmap. It can guide you and help you remember and set clear expectations for your essay's development. Here are a few things to consider:

Outline your main points in the introduction.
Make an outline that helps you write in intriguing detail and keeps your essay introduction concise.
Ensure that all points in your introduction paragraph directly back up or relate to your thesis statement.

Techniques For Creating A Dynamic Essay Introduction Paragraph

If you want more techniques on how to start a paper effectively, here are some valuable techniques you can employ in your essay writing.

As we’ve stated, your essay introduction is a crucial pillar you’ll need to develop, so let’s take a look at more writing tips you can apply to it:

Use the ACTIVE Voice : Write in the active voice, where the subject performs the action. Active voice makes your writing clearer, direct, dynamic, and engaging.
Avoid Common Mistakes : Steer clear of cliches, generalizations, and irrelevant information. Stay on-topic in your introduction.
Set the Proper Tone : Match the tone of your essay introduction with the rest of your essay. If your essay is formal, keep the introduction formal; if it's persuasive, make the introduction persuasive.
Smooth Transitions : Ensure a smooth transition from the essay introduction to the body to maintain the flow of your writing

And don’t forget, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all this information, you can buy custom essay services on Studyfy right now and get expert help.

So, what exactly can we do to employ smooth transitions? Here are a few helpful pointers:

Employ Transitional Phrases : Use phrases like "this leads us to" or "with that in mind" to facilitate seamless transitions from the introduction to the body.
Re-use a Key Term : Consider re-using a key term introduced in the first sentence of your introduction in the last sentence. This creates continuity and maintains smoothness in your writing.
Leverage Logical Progression : Organize your points logically to ensure a coherent and clear progression in your essay.

‍ Mastering The Essay’s Introduction

Now you know all that you NEED to know about starting an essay. Let’s go over a brief recap of the key takeaways:

Analyze your prompt thoroughly.
Create a captivating hook.
Use effective transitional phrases.
Use logical flow for coherence.
Introduce key points and make sure they align with your thesis statement.

We hope this guide has helped you. Don’t forget to seek feedback from professors and peers. They might give you additional tips and insights that can be valuable.

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Which strategies can I use to start an essay?

The best way to start an essay is to analyze the prompt thoroughly. This will give you an idea of your essay's general purpose. If you need help, you can pay for an essay right now and get expert help.

The prompt is essential background information for your narrative essay or your persuasive essay introductions, as well as other types of academic writing.

How can I craft a strong thesis statement?

A key component of how to start an essay is a strong thesis statement. You can create a strong one by identifying the key theme/question and then narrowing it down to your main argument.

What's a good way to hook a reader in my introduction? What are good essay introduction examples?

A good way to start an essay is by making a compelling hook in your introduction paragraph. You can start your introduction by providing a shocking fact, a provoking question, an intriguing quote, or a personal anecdote.

To maintain the reader's attention, center your essay writing process, both how the essay begins and the entire essay, around the reader's curiosity. The reader's attention should lead your essay introductions, how you incorporate relevant background information, and write other academic essays.

What are common mistakes I should avoid when writing my introduction?

The best way to start an essay is by avoiding common pitfalls in the introduction. Don't use broad statements or cliches. Don't make your intro too long. Have a clear thesis statement ready.

When it comes to the intro, whether an argumentative essay introduction or expository essay introduction, what matters is igniting the mentioned reader's attention.

A big mistake is to dull down the reader's curiosity right at the beginning. Instead, open with passion. A few examples might be interesting facts, shocking statistics, or other intriguing ways to get a strong introduction.

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October 10, 2018

30 Kickass Ways to Start an Essay

by Nicholas Walker , under IELTS and TOEFL , Writing skills

The purpose of the first sentence in your essay is to make your reader want to read your next sentence. In truth, every sentence you write has the same purpose: to keep them reading to the end.

So, you have to start off strong. Your first sentence has to have some impact on the reader or you risk your essay being tossed aside never to be picked up again.

Try to feel my pain. As your reader, the last thing I want to read is some dry announcement about your plan for your essay, “ In my essay, I will blah blah blah .” Yuck! I would rather read a grocery list!

And you can do better than that.

A martial artist once told me, “If you want to win a fight, hit first and hit hard.” With that in mind, here are 30 sentence types that will hit your reader hard at the beginning of your fight for his or her attention.

My advice to you is to take 30 minutes to compose 30 of your own sentences using each structure and example to guide you. Don’t labour over each one. Some will be easy. Some not so much.

Once you have your list of 30 kickass sentences, copy and paste your own sentences into the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker to check for errors .

Of course, you should become a member of the Virtual Writing Tutor first–if you aren’t one already–because then the system will save your sentences to your profile for you to review later. (Yes, membership is 100% free, and no, we don’t send spam.)

1. Not this, but that.

Example: A moral code is not a hindrance to true success– it’s a necessity.

Structure : ____ is not a ______ — it’s a _______.

Comment: Say what something is not (or should not be) so that you can say what it is (or should be). Notice the dash. It joins two short sentences, one negative and one affirmative. You can join your sentences with a semicolon or a comma* if you prefer.

*Strictly speaking, using a comma to join two sentences is usually called a comma splice error, but because the sentences are short, your reader will will interpret the sentence as a stylistic sentence rather than a comma splice error.

2. Use “ better off than ” to highlight an advantage.

Example : A society with minimal restrictions on the expression of ideas and opinions is better off than a society with a propensity to censor.

Example : A person with talent is better off than a person with training.

Structure : ________is better off than __________.

Comment: The phrase “better than” compares two things directly, whereas the phrase “better off than” compares starting points. It tells the reader that one has an advantage the other doesn’t have.

3. Compare adjectives with “ being _ is better than being _ “

Example : Being realistic is better than being heedlessly optimistic.

Structure: Being _______ is better than being ________.

Comment: Nouns are easy to compare, but when we compare adjectives we need the word “being” in front of them. This structure makes short, punchy claims easy to write, which make it easy for your reader to keep reading.

4. Show equality with “ just as .”

Example : Apathy is just as harmful to humans as a physical disease .

Structure : ____ is just as _______ as _______.

Comment : If you are asked to discuss to two things and give your opinion, it can be a good idea to show how two things are equal in way before getting into their differences.

5. Introduce alternatives with “ between _ and _ .”

Example : Between the nation state and the individual, the nation state is more important by far.

Structure: Between X and Y, X is best .

Comment: By offering two alternatives and then naming the first alternative again with a claim to its superiority, you create a sentence with a repeated element. The repetition creates an impact by making the repeated element more memorable. Poetry and song lyrics use repetition with this same intention.

6. Announce your plan to categorize with “ fit into a range of .”

Example : Courageous deeds fit into a range of categories.

Structure: Xs fit into a range of categories.

Comment: After an opening sentence like this, you must keep your promise to categorize examples of “courageous deeds” into multiple types.

7. Say how something resists categorization with “ go beyond .”

Example : Dreams go beyond career choices and material desires .

Structure: Xs go beyond Ys and Zs.

Comment: Notice how the three items in the example are all plurals. Keep your items parallel when using this sentence structure. Also, notice how saying dreams go beyond make dreams bigger and more important than the other items mentioned. Readers will be curious how. Don’t disappoint.

8. Say where concepts originate.

Example: Established values in a society originate in culture, religion, and the hopes and dreams that a country was founded upon.

Plural Structure: Xs originate in Y and Z.

Singular Structure: X originates in Y and Z.

Comment : Saying where something originates opens the door to illustrations from the past. An essay with a first sentence like this will practically write itself.

9. Show surprising resilience with “ even with .”

Example: Even with the divorce rate of 50% Americans remain dedicated to the idea of family and community.

Example : Despite a string of serious allegations, voters continue to support their president.

Structure : Even with / Despite _______, Xs remain _________.

Comment : Sentences that show us the surprising resilience of a state of affairs despite a factor that works against it make readers curious about why it is so. Make no mistake. Notice “even with” introduces past and present situations, while “even if” tells the reader about the future.

10. Virtually disappeared .

Example: Good manners have virtually disappeared from our self-centered world.

Structure: ___ has virtually disappeared.

Comment: “Virtually” means “nearly or almost.” If you say that good manners have disappeared, your reader may say to him or herself, “Nonsense! I have good manners.” If this happens, you will have an uphill battle on your hands. Your reader will resist you. But if you say that good manners have virtually disappeared, that is much harder to contradict and should arouse curiosity instead.

11. Imagine a world without something.

Example: Imagine a world without the light bulb, without civil rights, or without the personal computer.

Structure: Imagine a world without ___, without ___, or without ___.

Comment: Imagining a different world arouses the reader’s imagination and curiosity. All you have to do after a sentence like this is to offer illustrations how life would be different. Easy.

12. Say what is important to do before taking action.

Example: It is very important to attempt to understand people’s motivations and circumstances before judging their actions.

Structure: It is very important to ____ before _____.

Comment: This is a way of telling your reader what to do without directly telling your reader what to do. You merely point out what to do first.

13. Say what someone did and how he or she did it with “ through .”

Example: Lincoln, through the force of his character and his knack for politics, kept the United States united and ended 250 years of slavery.

Structure: X, through the ______ of his/her character, ________.

Comment: This sentence is very useful for making claims about people who have shown leadership or talent in the past. By painting a portrait of a great person, you will activate your reader’s memory and imagination.

14. Say how most people agree that…

Example: Most people agree that the amount of preparation is proportional to the degree of success for any endeavor.

Structure: Most people agree that ____.

Comment: If you say, “all people agree that” or “all people know that,” your reader will resist you because it will sound like an exaggeration. Using the words “most people” still sounds bold, but it makes your claim sound less extreme.

15. Say how an idea “ manifests itself .”

Example: Nowadays, creativity manifests itself endlessly, in all fields of study.

Structure: Nowadays, _________ manifests itself, in _______.

Comment: “Manifests itself” is just another way of saying “appears,” but it sounds more active and impressive. The adverb “endlessly” isn’t an essential part of this structure. It is not an exaggeration in the example sentence. I think it is true. We live in a very creative age.

16. Say what experts have observed or noticed.

Example: Philosophers and scientists have observed that perspective colors perception.

Structure: ______ have observed _____.

Comment: This is a useful alternative to the word “said.” When you say that experts have observed something, they have seen it and talked about it. Notice how “to observe” is a little ambiguous. It can mean strictly “to watch and see,” but it is often used to mean “said.” The ambiguity prevents the reader from thinking, “Oh, yeah? Really? Where have they said that? Cite your sources!” Ambiguity at the beginning of your essay reduces resistance to your initial claim and keeps your reader reading.

17. Say how reflecting on something often leads to something else.

Example: Reflecting on the condition of modern society often leads to the question, have we become overly cynical and desensitized?

Structure: Reflecting on _____ often leads to the question ______?

Comment: When you tell your reader reflection leads to curiosity about something, your reader will reflect and become curious. Kickass!

18. Claim that a virtue leads to harm.

Example: Sometimes the realization of one’s personal goals can cost another theirs.

Structure: Sometimes _______ leads to ________.

Comment: The irony that a good thing leads to a bad thing for others will arouse your reader’s sympathy and moral indignation. This sentence structure is a powerful first sentence in an essay.

19. Say that the world once believed something.

Example: The world once believed in things that we now find either horrifying or ridiculous.

Structure: The world once believed ______.

Comment: This sentence flatters your reader that he or she is not so stupid as the stupid people in the past, with their ridiculous ideas. Your readers will like the way you make them feel good about themselves.

20. Say how the greater part of something depends upon something.

Example: The greater part of our happiness or misery depends more upon disposition than circumstances.

Structure: The greater part of _____ depends more upon _____ than _____.

Comment: This is a very versatile structure that immediately spurs thought-provoking reflection. You could start an essay about success by saying, “ The greater part of success depends more upon luck than skill. ” AN essay about happiness could begin, “ The greater part of happiness depends more upon a hopeful sense of progress than upon the satisfaction of past achievement.”

21. Introduce a criticism by saying X is often accused of something.

Example: The media is often accused of sensationalism and outright bias.

Structure: _______ is often accused of ________.

Comment: This sentence makes the accusation sound unfair. It will arouse sympathy and moral indignation in your reader.

22. State a universal need.

Example: The need to belong is universal.

Structure: _______ is universal.

Comment: There are many things that are universal. Use this structure to tell your reader.

23. Claim that something “ seems straightforward .”

Example: The purpose of education these days seems to be a straightforward one.

Structure: _____ seems straightforward.

Comment: These are two useful words that when placed side-by-side become even more useful. “Seem” suggests that things could be different than they appear. This arouses curiosity. “Straightforward” suggests simplicity. We all want to be rescued from confusion and excessive complexity.

24. Declare that something “ has been debated for ages .”

Example: The role of government has been debated for ages without any concrete answer being offered.

Structure: _____ has been debated for ages.

Comment: When you start an essay like that, I’m expecting that you will settle the debate. Keep your promise.

25. Reflect on “ an inherent part of the human psyche .”

Example: The search for answers to all of life’s mysteries is an inherent part of the human psyche.

Structure: _____ an inherent part of the human psyche.

Comment: There are lots of things that are inherent to the human psyche. Memorise this structure. It could be useful to you.

26. Claim that there is little or no correlation to something.

Example: The truth and facts have little or no correlation to what is popular or mainstream.

Structure: _____ have little or no correlation to ______.

Comment: Oh, really? Not connected? Do tell. This sentence is bold and arouses my curiosity. It will arouse your reader’s curiosity also.

27. There can be no doubt .

Example: There can be no doubt that problems will continue to plague humanity far into the future, problems as diverse as the people they afflict.

Structure: There can be no doubt that ______.

Comment: People are attracted to certainty. Offer some to your reader.

28. Tell us that “ nobody is free from ” something.

Example: Today, nobody is free from the demands or expectations of others, whether one is a toddler and expected to walk by certain age or a father expected to provide a comfortable life for his family.

Structure: Nobody is free from _______.

Comment: Everybody wants to be free. It is unfair that people should be unfree. Every reader will want to keep reading after the first four words.

29. What forever remains ? Tell us.

Example: Two opposing ideals remain forever in competition.

Structure: _____ remain forever _____.

Comment: Putting the word “forever” after the word “remain” seems a little old-fashioned and formal. It will make you sound like an authority on the subject.

30. What “ might never have come to fruition ?”

Example: Without passion optimism and the willingness to believe in the past, many accomplishments in this world might never have come to fruition.

Structure: Without _____, _____ might never have come to fruition.

Comment: This blog post might never have come to fruition if I hadn’t bought “ 30 Model Essays ” and been impressed with the first lines of each essay. I hope you found it useful.

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How to Start a College Essay to Hook Your Reader

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What’s Covered:

What is the purpose of the college essay introduction, tips for getting started on your essay, 6 effective techniques for starting your college essay.

Cliche College Essay Introduction to Avoid

Where to Get Your Essay Edited for Free

Have you sat down to write your essay and just hit a wall of writer’s block? Do you have too many ideas running around your head, or maybe no ideas at all?

Starting a college essay is potentially the hardest part of the application process. Once you start, it’s easy to keep writing, but that initial hurdle is just so difficult to overcome. We’ve put together a list of tips to help you jump that wall and make your essay the best it can be.

The introduction to a college essay should immediately hook the reader. You want to give admissions officers a reason to stay interested in your story and encourage them to continue reading your essay with an open mind. Remember that admissions officers are only able to spend a couple minutes per essay, so if you bore them or turn them off from the start, they may clock out for the rest of the essay.

As a whole, the college essay should aim to portray a part of your personality that hasn’t been covered by your GPA, extracurriculars, and test scores. This makes the introduction a crucial part of the essay. Think of it as the first glimpse, an intriguing lead on, into the read rest of your essay which also showcases your voice and personality.

Brainstorm Topics

Take the time to sit down and brainstorm some good topic ideas for your essay. You want your topic to be meaningful to you, while also displaying a part of you that isn’t apparent in other aspects of your application. The essay is an opportunity to show admissions officers the “real you.” If you have a topic in mind, do not feel pressured to start with the introduction. Sometimes the best essay openings are developed last, once you fully grasp the flow of your story.

Do a Freewrite

Give yourself permission to write without judgment for an allotted period of time. For each topic you generated in your brainstorm session, do a free-write session. Set a time for one minute and write down whatever comes to mind for that specific topic. This will help get the juices flowing and push you over that initial bit of writer’s block that’s so common when it comes time to write a college essay. Repeat this exercise if you’re feeling stuck at any point during the essay writing process. Freewriting is a great way to warm up your creative writing brain whilst seeing which topics are flowing more naturally onto the page.

Create an Outline

Once you’ve chosen your topic, write an outline for your whole essay. It’s easier to organize all your thoughts, write the body, and then go back to write the introduction. That way, you already know the direction you want your essay to go because you’ve actually written it out, and you can ensure that your introduction leads directly into the rest of the essay. Admissions officers are looking for the quality of your writing alongside the content of your essay. To be prepared for college-level writing, students should understand how to logically structure an essay. By creating an outline, you are setting yourself up to be judged favorably on the quality of your writing skills.

1. The Scriptwriter

“No! Make it stop! Get me out!” My 5-year-old self waved my arms frantically in front of my face in the darkened movie theater.

Starting your essay with dialogue instantly transports the reader into the story, while also introducing your personal voice. In the rest of the essay, the author proposes a class that introduces people to insects as a type of food. Typically, one would begin directly with the course proposal. However, the author’s inclusion of this flashback weaves in a personal narrative, further displaying her true self.

Read the full essay.

2. The Shocker

A chaotic sense of sickness and filth unfolds in an overcrowded border station in McAllen, Texas. Through soundproof windows, migrants motion that they have not showered in weeks, and children wear clothes caked in mucus and tears. The humanitarian crisis at the southern border exists not only in photographs published by mainstream media, but miles from my home in South Texas.

This essay opener is also a good example of “The Vivid Imaginer.” In this case, the detailed imagery only serves to heighten the shock factor. While people may be aware of the “humanitarian crisis at the southern border,” reading about it in such stark terms is bound to capture the reader’s attention. Through this hook, the reader learns a bit about the author’s home life; an aspect of the student that may not be detailed elsewhere in their application. The rest of the essay goes on to talk about the author’s passion for aiding refugees, and this initial paragraph immediately establishes the author’s personal connection to the refugee crisis.

3. The Vivid Imaginer

The air is crisp and cool, nipping at my ears as I walk under a curtain of darkness that drapes over the sky, starless. It is a Friday night in downtown Corpus Christi, a rare moment of peace in my home city filled with the laughter of strangers and colorful lights of street vendors. But I cannot focus.

Starting off with a bit of well-written imagery transports the reader to wherever you want to take them. By putting them in this context with you, you allow the reader to closely understand your thoughts and emotions in this situation. Additionally, this method showcases the author’s individual way of looking at the world, a personal touch that is the baseline of all college essays.

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4. The Instant Plunger

The flickering LED lights began to form into a face of a man when I focused my eyes. The man spoke of a ruthless serial killer of the decade who had been arrested in 2004, and my parents shivered at his reaccounting of the case. I curiously tuned in, wondering who he was to speak of such crimes with concrete composure and knowledge. Later, he introduced himself as a profiler named Pyo Chang Won, and I watched the rest of the program by myself without realizing that my parents had left the couch.

Plunging readers into the middle of a story (also known as in medias res ) is an effective hook because it captures attention by placing the reader directly into the action. The descriptive imagery in the first sentence also helps to immerse the reader, creating a satisfying hook while also showing (instead of telling) how the author became interested in criminology. With this technique, it is important to “zoom out,” so to speak, in such a way that the essay remains personal to you.

5. The Philosopher

Saved in the Notes app on my phone are three questions: What can I know? What must I do? What may I hope for? First asked by Immanuel Kant, these questions guide my pursuit of knowledge and organization of critical thought, both skills that are necessary to move our country and society forward in the right direction.

Posing philosophical questions helps present you as someone with deep ideas while also guiding the focus of your essay. In a way, it presents the reader with a roadmap; they know that these questions provide the theme for the rest of the essay. The more controversial the questions, the more gripping a hook you can create.

Providing an answer to these questions is not necessarily as important as making sure that the discussions they provoke really showcase you and your own values and beliefs.

6. The Storyteller

One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didn’t realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering.

Beginning with an anecdote is a strong way to establish a meaningful connection with the content itself. It also shows that the topic you write about has been a part of your life for a significant amount of time, and something that college admissions officers look for in activities is follow-through; they want to make sure that you are truly interested in something. A personal story such as the one above shows off just that.

Cliche College Essay Introductions to Avoid

Ambiguous introduction.

It’s best to avoid introductory sentences that don’t seem to really say anything at all, such as “Science plays a large role in today’s society,” or “X has existed since the beginning of time.” Statements like these, in addition to being extremely common, don’t demonstrate anything about you, the author. Without a personal connection to you right away, it’s easy for the admissions officer to write off the essay before getting past the first sentence.

Quoting Someone Famous

While having a quotation by a famous author, celebrity, or someone else you admire may seem like a good way to allow the reader to get to know you, these kinds of introductions are actually incredibly overused. You also risk making your essay all about the quotation and the famous person who said it; admissions officers want to get to know you, your beliefs, and your values, not someone who isn’t applying to their school. There are some cases where you may actually be asked to write about a quotation, and that’s fine, but you should avoid starting your essay with someone else’s words outside of this case. It is fine, however, to start with dialogue to plunge your readers into a specific moment.

Talking About Writing an Essay

This method is also very commonplace and is thus best avoided. It’s better to show, not tell, and all this method allows you to do is tell the reader how you were feeling at the time of writing the essay. If you do feel compelled to go this way, make sure to include vivid imagery and focus on grounding the essay in the five senses, which can help elevate your introduction and separate it from the many other meta essays.

Childhood Memories

Phrases like “Ever since I was young…” or “I’ve always wanted…” also lend more to telling rather than showing. If you want to talk about your childhood or past feelings in your essay, try using one of the techniques listed earlier (such as the Instant Plunger or the Vivid Imaginer) to elevate your writing.

CollegeVine has a peer essay review page where peers can tell you if your introduction was enough to hook them. Getting feedback from someone who hasn’t read your essay before, and thus doesn’t have any context which may bias them to be more forgiving to your introduction, is helpful because it mimics the same environment in which an admissions officer will be reading your essay.

Writing a college essay is hard, but with these tips hopefully starting it will be a little easier!

How to Start an Essay: Tips to Consider and Mistakes to Avoid

Speech Topics
Essay Topics
Other Essays
Main Academic Essays
Research Paper Topics
Basics of Research Paper Writing
Miscellaneous
Chicago/ Turabian
Data & Statistics
Methodology
Admission Writing Tips
Admission Advice
Other Guides
Student Life
Studying Tips
Understanding Plagiarism
Academic Writing Tips
Basics of Dissertation & Thesis Writing

Research Paper Guides
Formatting Guides
Basics of Research Process
Admission Guides
Dissertation & Thesis Guides

Table of contents

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An essay introduction is the first paragraph where students frame the context and oresent the main topic. The introductory paragraph should grab the reader's attention, provide sufficient background details, and introduce a thesis statement.

Learning how to start an essay with a bang isn't as hard as it seems. All you need is to follow some actionable strategies described in this article. Keep reading this post and find out:

Good ways to make your opening powerful
Mistakes you should avoid when working on the essay's beginning
Decent examples that can be used for reference.

But before we break down the intricacies of crafting a catchy introduction, let's make sure we understand the basics.

How to Begin an Essay: Basics

Wondering how to start off an essay ? An excellent opening paragraph is half the battle. Technically, an introduction is the most fundamental part of any academic essay. It presents a topic and makes the first impression about your writing. Make it irresistible, and your reader won't help but soak up the entire piece from cover to cover. Fail to do so, and your audience will put your essay away. The primary purpose of an introduction is to:

Hook your reader
Offer context on the subject
Introduce your thesis statement

With this in mind, the first paragraph of your essay should be clear, informative, and attention-grabbing. Keep it concise — your intro part should be no more than 5-6 sentences long. Its perfect length allows you to impress the reader and prevents you from waffling.

Good Ways to Start an Essay

Now that you've gained insights about an effective introduction let's run through actionable ways to start an essay. From outlining thoughts to crafting a strong thesis, you will find smart solutions from StudyCrumb to any challenges you may face. So let's see how to create a jaw-dropping introduction.

1. Create Introduction Paragraph Outline

The writing process should start with building a logical introduction paragraph structure. There are no one-size-fits-all requirements to the outline for an essay. But you can always use an essay outline example . Depending on the type of essay, you can express your position towards the chosen topic (e.g., argumentative essay introduction). Likewise, you can also present an idea for further investigation (e.g., expository essay introduction). But most academic experts agree on the three important parts every introductory paragraph should include. These are a captivating hook, informative background, and compelling thesis statement. So, before starting your essay, outline the core ideas according to the structure shown below.

Since you are already familiar with the crucial introduction elements, let's walk through the other actionable tips.

2. Write a Hook

As mentioned before, you should write a good hook or use powerful words to start an essay. This single sentence defines how successful your piece will be. It helps grab the reader's attention and that’s exactly what you should aim. For this reason, you'll need some extra time to create a catchy hook. Students who try to amaze their professors by writing long, complex opening sentences make a huge mistake. Instead, you should opt for a succinct and straightforward hook. Your job is to arouse that thirst for reading the rest of your essay. Would you like to know how to write a hook for an essay ? Here are several hook strategies that can help make your introduction irresistible:

Using an interesting fact. And by interesting details, we mean any shocking information representing your topic in an unusual way. Avoid overused statistics and numbers, though — there is nothing special about facts common in your subject study. Sensational details that seem unrelated at first glance will work; it's about how you connect them together.
Telling the outcome without revealing a secret. Let's say you're sharing your personal experience. While beginning from afar is all well and good, but why not tell what comes in the end first? How did your story finish? As you do so, avoid spoilers — keep your audience intrigued without giving away a surprise.
Provide some space for contrast. Beginning your essay with contrast between opposing opinions can help entice your reader. Don't insult your audience with intense confrontation. Instead, your essay starter should work as an encouraging trigger, making your readers reconsider common stereotypes.

Hooking the Reader: Examples

Let's look at some examples below to get an idea of how weak hooks can be fixed.

As you can see, the first sentence is a boring definition that will definitely make your reader yawn. The second example is a good essay hook since it clearly states what you will discuss.

While the first example is relatively brief, it lacks precise information. It's not clear from the first sentence what "recent trends" the writer is talking about. The latter sample is more specific.

Besides, it bridges the gap between two separate things — "pandemic" and "online education".

3. Provide Background Information

At this stage, you should figure out what background information is necessary to introduce your topic. Your main point here is to offer some context. You can use any basic information on the subject, such as:

Historical, scientific, or geographical facts
Brief research question overview
Interpretation of critical points

In this section, you should walk a fine line between stating general facts and keeping your writing focused on a specific topic. Avoid unnecessary or too narrow details — you will have a chance to explore your key points in the body part. Remember that your background shouldn't exceed 2-3 sentences.

4. Introduce a Thesis

Now that you know how to give the proper context, we will shed more light on presenting a thesis statement. It should be 1-2 sentences long which is enough to state your main argument. Be direct and stay on point. A claim that you make in this introduction's part works as a base for the whole essay. Clearly express your viewpoint on the topic or state specific ideas that you will explore. Again, a bold claim (e.g., "In this essay I will tell you about…", or "This essay covers…") isn't something you want to write.

Starting an Essay: Mistakes to Avoid

Chances are you've heard that integrating a quote or asking a rhetorical question are great ways to start an essay. Those students who really believe that these techniques work in 100% of cases are mistaken, and we'll explain why. There is nothing easier than coming up with a question or copy-pasting some dictionary definitions. In fact, these are just shortcuts that fit more high-school writing. When in college or university, you probably want to approach introduction in a more sophisticated way. In addition, many students misuse these techniques creating perfect opportunities for mistakes. Let's see what can be wrong with some common strategies and how to fix these issues.

How to Start an Essay With a Quote

If you want to start an essay with a quote and not sound too ordinary, here's an expert tip: pick a unique quotation tailored to the chosen subject. If you have never done it before, look at an appropriate quote example . Using quotes in the introduction is a common practice, but the majority misuse them. Consequently, teachers end up reading lots of pieces that begin with irrelevant quotations. Avoid cliche sayings and proverbs unless you want to exhaust your readers. Find an extraordinary quote related to your thesis statement.

How to Start an Essay With a Question

Another idea to open an essay is posing a rhetorical question. This device is widely taught at school since it's an easy way to engage your readers and provide some food for thought. But don't get trapped in choosing a question with a too evident answer. In addition, such approach may be unsuitable in college-level research; it's more common in narrative essay writing. One simple rule you should remember— any question you ask in the introduction should be unusual and resonate with a thesis statement.

Can I Begin an Essay With a Definition

Some students may wonder whether it's worth starting an essay with a definition. The answer is yes and no. Don't define a term that everyone is familiar with. Teachers don't need the interpretation of apparent concepts (such as "friendship" or "education"). After all, you want your reader to take your writing seriously. It makes sense to include a brief explanation if your essay focuses on a complicated subject or exotic phenomenon.

How to Open an Essay With an Anecdote

An opening sentence for an essay starting with an anecdote, joke, or fun fact is a great way to set a friendly tone. A little fun story serves two purposes: it demonstrates your argument while engaging the reader. Such essay starters are widely used in narrative and descriptive writing . However, using this technique in academic research would be inappropriate. Begin your essay in a humorous way only when it fits the context and aligns with the main subject.

Final Thoughts

As you can see beginning an essay isn’t that complicated; it just takes some time and practice to nail it. You should get ready for testing which tactic works best. Explore what strategies do help engage your reader and apply them next time. But before submitting an essay, double-check it for grammar mistakes and make sure it's easy-to digest using our readability calculator . Believe, no tactic will work if the final piece is full of errors.

In case you don’t have much time to create an appealing introduction or just need extra assistance, entrust your assignment to our expert writers. They are always here for you to jump-start any essay and deliver the final piece that’s beyond all expectations.

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

How to start a college essay

Bonus Material: PrepMaven’s 30 College Essays that worked

If you’re applying to college, then you likely already know that the college admissions essay goes a long way to distinguishing your profile from the thousands of other applications in the college admissions process.

If you want to wow those picky admission officers at selective colleges, you want an effective college application essay–and if you want an effective college application essay, you need a strong start that hooks readers.

At PrepMaven, we’ve spent years coaching students on how to craft college essays that work, and we’ve seen countless students get admitted to Princeton, Harvard, and other elite universities after using our methods.

We’ve already written up some of our best advice on brainstorming and structuring your college essay. In this post, we’ll specifically cover one of the hardest parts: how to actually begin your college application essay.

We’ve also provided a link to our collection of 30 real college application essays that worked–take a look at these for real-life examples of the techniques covered in this post!

Download 30 essays that worked

Jump to section: Tips for getting past the blank page Techniques for effective openings The action scene The disorienting scene The surprising declaration The (unusual) quote The weird fact Final considerations Next steps

Tips for getting past the blank page

If you’re intimidated by the act of starting the college essay, you aren’t alone. The blank page is as terrifying and intimidating to professional writers as it is for you.

Take it from Margaret Atwood, an astonishingly prolific writer who still said, “The fact is that blank pages inspire me with terror.” In this section, we’ll offer three ways to get started writing and get past that blank page.

Later in this post, we’ll highlight several specific ways you can begin your essay, with examples and analysis. “Techniques for effective openings” to jump to those techniques.

It’s a tough thing to put a story on the page. It’s even more so when the story is personal and the stakes are high, as is the case with these college application essays. So, before we cover specific writing techniques you can use to begin your college essay, we’d like to suggest a few ways to get over that initial hump of writing the first word.

Note that all of these assume you’ve got a topic in mind–if you don’t, check out our post here on how to brainstorm an effective college essay topic. If you’re still having trouble picking a topic, that’s something that can easily be worked through by connecting with one of our college essay experts.

Before beginning your actual essay, take a stab at a few short free-writes that nobody will ever see.

After selecting your topic, try writing anywhere from 100-250 words on two or more of the following prompts:

Write a first-person description of the most important moment related to your chosen topic.
Why did you choose this topic? Why is it important?
Narrate how your worldview has changed as a result of the events you plan to write about.
Write exactly what point you want college admissions officers to take away from your essay and choice of topic.
Conversely, describe what you don’t want admissions officers to take away from this essay.

Remember: these are free-writes, not part of your essay! More likely than not, what you write here won’t find its way directly into the finished product. But, even if it might sound corny, this will help you start thinking more deeply about what you want to convey.

More importantly, it’ll help you get over the initial hurdle of writing something . If nobody is ever going to read one of these free-writes, you don’t have to worry about making it pretty or neat. Just get some content on the page and let it shape your thinking.

Start in the middle

Often, it’s the introduction that’s hardest to come up with. But there’s no rule that says you have to write that part first! If you have a decent sense of where you want your essay to go, simply start writing from the middle of the essay.

As you continue to write, you’ll always have the ability to go back to the start and craft a powerful opening paragraph or scene that sets up your entire essay. What’s most important at this stage is to simply start writing . If that means starting in the middle, so be it: you get to decide where you start and where you end.

Early on, don’t try to make it perfect… or even good!

We know: the stakes are high, the sweat might be starting to bead on your forehead. But while this pressure can be a good thing, it shouldn’t affect your first draft. Remember that no admissions officer will ever read your first draft.

Does the first sentence you come up with sound awkward or silly? Perfectly fine. Does your introductory anecdote seem cliche? Sounds great. Do you think the first couple sentences don’t connect to each other at all? Absolutely no problem.

When you begin writing, you are not trying to jump to a finished product as quickly as possible. The truth is that whatever you write now will get edited or revised countless times before you arrive at the final, polished version of your college application essay.

When we work with students, it’s not uncommon to see an essay go through 10 or more drafts. At first, those changes might be massive–an essay might transform almost totally between drafts 1 and 2. As the work continues, all those clunky or awkward moments you didn’t like in your first draft will get tweaked and polished into something beautiful that you can be proud of.

We’ve seen it happen with every successful college personal statement. Every time, students find it so much easier to work on the second draft than the first, regardless of how successful that first draft was. The mere fact of having something to edit makes all the difference.

We can take some more advice from Margaret Atwood: “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”

Don’t wait for perfection: write.

Techniques for effective college essay openings (with examples!)

While the above suggestions can help you get started writing, we also want to provide 5 specific techniques you can use to begin your essay.

Of course, there are way more than 5 ways to start an essay. In this post, however, we wanted to highlight the 5 techniques that can easily and successfully be incorporated into just about any essay. You can think of these 5 as integral components of your basic toolkit.

Depending on the topic of your essay and what structure you plan to use, some of these will work better than others.

If you ever want someone with a proven track record of experience to show you how it’s done, you can always get matched with one of our essay tutors . Or, if you just want to take a look at openings like these in action, check out our free collection of 30 real sample essays below.

I walked down the pale pink stone pathway, up a ramp, past the library building, and towards the Student Activities Center of the college campus, carrying a large brown cardboard box.

From: 30 College Essay Samples

If you’ve read any real sample college essays, you’ve seen this kind of opening. And with good reason: it’s tried, it’s true, it hooks admission officers while also setting up the story you’re about to tell.

The idea is extremely simple. Identify a particular moment that can serve to introduce the topic of your essay. Then, begin by writing 1-2 sentences describing a specific action that you were taking, as in the example above.

What’s so good about this kind of opening? Well, it immediately puts the spotlight on you and drops us in the middle of some event or incident that we want to learn more about. Where is this person going? What’s in the cardboard box? Why have they chosen to write about this particular moment at this particular place?

If you’re really not sure how to start, this is often one of the easiest paths to take. Describe in detail where you were and what you did, and you’ll have the makings of a strong piece of writing.

The disorienting scene

The squeaks of whiteboard markers have now replaced the scritch-scratch of chalk, but the hubbub of voices is always the same. For millennia, the great thinkers of their day would gather and discuss.

From: 30 College Essay Examples

This is similar to the first technique, with two differences. The first is that it doesn’t necessarily recount any action that you are taking (it doesn’t even need to talk about you); the second is that it explicitly aims to be a bit disorienting.

In this case, it’s not totally clear what’s going on: where are we, what’s going on, and what does all this have to do with great thinkers? As is always the case, the primary goal is to hook admissions committees so that they keep reading. This kind of disorienting scene works by making us want to figure out what’s going on.

A couple key things to bear in mind for this opening:

Sensory details are key! Without the sensory details in this example, it simply wouldn’t work.
Don’t keep it disorienting for too long. Any longer than a few sentences of disorientation and you risk annoying readers.
Don’t make it so disorienting that we can’t get any sense of what’s happening. It’s a tricky thing to balance, but you want us confused enough to keep reading and not so confused that we think it’s just bad writing.

The surprising declaration

I am an aspiring hot sauce sommelier.

We’ve used this opener as an example in some of our other posts, but it really is a great one: it’s weird, it’s unusual, it’s unique. And that’s exactly what you want with this kind of opening. Simply start with a surprising or bold statement about who you are or what you believe.

Shorter is usually better with these: surprise us, and let us stay surprised for a second! If you’re writing an essay about how you view the world or some element of your identity that’s important to you, you can almost always start off the essay with a statement like “I am…” or “I believe…”

It’s stunningly simple, and, done well, it can be stunningly effective, providing something like a thesis statement that you’ll explore over the course of your essay. But simplicity can be dangerous:

The statement must be surprising . If it’s something obvious, boring, or cliche, then you risk jeopardizing your entire essay from the start.
The statement cannot be offensive . We know: that’s a loaded, subjective term. But you don’t want to try so hard to be surprising and edgy that you offend adcoms.
Finally, you have to be able to meaningfully explore the statement. This opening is just that: an opening. You have to make sure the rest of your essay successfully conveys some key personal experience that matters.

For more successful essays that open with the surprising declaration, check our our collection of 30 real essays that worked below.

Download 30 Essays That Worked

The (unusual) quote

Example 1: “What’s this white-ass boy doin’ in a black neighborhood?”

Example 2: “So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” – Franz Kafka. Kafka, I’m afraid, has drastically overestimated the power of food.

If you’ve read other guides, then you’ve probably noticed almost all of them tell you not to start by quoting someone. And, for the most part, they’re right. You do not want to start by quoting one of the tired, cliche quotes that everyone comes across and uses.

It’s not, obviously, that the most famous quotes from Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, or JFK aren’t important–it’s that they’re so important everyone has heard them a million times.

But the point to take away isn’t that a quote is always bad. A cliche quote, a boring quote, a quote that you don’t do anything interesting with– that’s bad. An unusual, unexpected, and totally original quote? That can work.

Take a look at our two examples above. They’re radically different, but what they share is that they’re not just some famous quotes a student saw in a textbook.

The first is provocative, even vulgar–but you absolutely know there’s a brilliant story about to follow.

The second, while it could be boring or cliche, isn’t. Why? Because the writer immediately inserts their own voice and criticism: they’re not just using the quote to prove some big point, they’re humorously arguing against the quote itself.

It helps, too, that the quote is from someone well known enough (read Kafka if you haven’t already) but not quite as famous as the usual folks people cite.

The lesson to take away from this is two-pronged:

Never start a college essay with an overly famous, cliche, or boring quote–especially if you don’t have anything new to say about it.
You can start an essay with a quote that’s personal, provocative, or otherwise unusual.

It’s a tough needle to thread, but done well, this can make for a killer introduction to your personal narrative.

Not sure whether the quote you’ve got in mind is cliche or not? The best way to find out is by asking someone who’s actually read countless essays– like one of our essay counselors , who’ve helped countless students navigate the college admissions process successfully.

The weird fact

Over 13 billion pennies are made each year, and for the most part, they are indistinguishable from one another. Each copper-brown coin has the same feel, the same size, and even the same old Abraham Lincoln on one side.

This one, more or less, is self-explanatory: toss an unexpected fact or stat at the reader, and you’ll get them intrigued as to what the connection is between it and your personal experience.

Often (as in the case of the example above), it’s a great way to introduce an unusual hobby or interest. If, say, you’re writing your college essays about your love for numismatics (coin-collecting), an unexpected fact about pennies can serve as the perfect opener.

But, as has been the dominant theme up to now, it’s crucial that your opening fact is at least somewhat unusual or interesting. It’s also super important that you immediately follow up to explain its relevance.

A few pointers:

If you open with a fact, connect it to your larger themes ASAP . Compared to the other opening techniques we covered, this one buys you the least time: an admissions committee can very quickly get bored of facts and stats, so give them something else quickly.
As always, what matters is what you do with this opening. Anyone can start with a wacky statistic–the question is how you can connect it seamlessly to your narrative in a way that convinces these hyper-selective universities that you’re a perfect fit.

Final suggestions

While each of those opening techniques has been proven to work countless times by our students, which one you choose might depend a bit on your choice of topic.

It might help to think about why each of these openings works: at heart, they all help you do what a good hook must:

Capture the reader’s attention by being distinct from other essays
Engage the reader’s curiosity by withholding a certain amount of information
Set the tone and stakes for what the rest of your essay will talk about.

At the same time, a hook has to avoid :

Coming off as inauthentic or like you’re trying too hard to be clever
insulting/offending/otherwise alienating the reader
Being confusing or unrelated to the essay prompt

Because each essay is unique, the best opening can vary–we recommend talking this over with one of our college essay experts , who have a proven track record of success helping students gain admission to Ivy League schools and other elite institutions.

Also bear in mind that these essay openers don’t just work for starting your Common App essay or personal statement; they’re just as valuable for all of your supplemental essays.

Ultimately, these are techniques you can use to ensure that your opening gives admissions committees what they want. They won’t guarantee a perfect essay–but they will help you develop a strong opening that sets you up for a powerful, convincing piece of writing.

As the beginning of this post suggested, the most important thing to do is: write! Use our techniques for getting past the blank page to get yourself warmed up.

Then, play around with our specific, proven openers to try different beginnings to your college essay.

If you ever need inspiration, then there’s no better place to look than our collection of 30 real essays that worked to get students into college, linked below.

And if you find you want someone to make sure your essay is as competitive as it needs to be, then you can always reach out to our team of expert college essay coaches here .

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40 Useful Words and Phrases for Top-Notch Essays

To be truly brilliant, an essay needs to utilise the right language. You could make a great point, but if it’s not intelligently articulated, you almost needn’t have bothered.

Developing the language skills to build an argument and to write persuasively is crucial if you’re to write outstanding essays every time. In this article, we’re going to equip you with the words and phrases you need to write a top-notch essay, along with examples of how to utilise them.

It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and there will often be other ways of using the words and phrases we describe that we won’t have room to include, but there should be more than enough below to help you make an instant improvement to your essay-writing skills.

If you’re interested in developing your language and persuasive skills, Oxford Royale offers summer courses at its Oxford Summer School , Cambridge Summer School , London Summer School , San Francisco Summer School and Yale Summer School . You can study courses to learn english , prepare for careers in law , medicine , business , engineering and leadership.

General explaining

Let’s start by looking at language for general explanations of complex points.

1. In order to

Usage: “In order to” can be used to introduce an explanation for the purpose of an argument. Example: “In order to understand X, we need first to understand Y.”

2. In other words

Usage: Use “in other words” when you want to express something in a different way (more simply), to make it easier to understand, or to emphasise or expand on a point. Example: “Frogs are amphibians. In other words, they live on the land and in the water.”

3. To put it another way

Usage: This phrase is another way of saying “in other words”, and can be used in particularly complex points, when you feel that an alternative way of wording a problem may help the reader achieve a better understanding of its significance. Example: “Plants rely on photosynthesis. To put it another way, they will die without the sun.”

4. That is to say

Usage: “That is” and “that is to say” can be used to add further detail to your explanation, or to be more precise. Example: “Whales are mammals. That is to say, they must breathe air.”

5. To that end

Usage: Use “to that end” or “to this end” in a similar way to “in order to” or “so”. Example: “Zoologists have long sought to understand how animals communicate with each other. To that end, a new study has been launched that looks at elephant sounds and their possible meanings.”

Adding additional information to support a point

Students often make the mistake of using synonyms of “and” each time they want to add further information in support of a point they’re making, or to build an argument . Here are some cleverer ways of doing this.

6. Moreover

Usage: Employ “moreover” at the start of a sentence to add extra information in support of a point you’re making. Example: “Moreover, the results of a recent piece of research provide compelling evidence in support of…”

7. Furthermore

Usage:This is also generally used at the start of a sentence, to add extra information. Example: “Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that…”

8. What’s more

Usage: This is used in the same way as “moreover” and “furthermore”. Example: “What’s more, this isn’t the only evidence that supports this hypothesis.”

9. Likewise

Usage: Use “likewise” when you want to talk about something that agrees with what you’ve just mentioned. Example: “Scholar A believes X. Likewise, Scholar B argues compellingly in favour of this point of view.”

10. Similarly

Usage: Use “similarly” in the same way as “likewise”. Example: “Audiences at the time reacted with shock to Beethoven’s new work, because it was very different to what they were used to. Similarly, we have a tendency to react with surprise to the unfamiliar.”

11. Another key thing to remember

Usage: Use the phrase “another key point to remember” or “another key fact to remember” to introduce additional facts without using the word “also”. Example: “As a Romantic, Blake was a proponent of a closer relationship between humans and nature. Another key point to remember is that Blake was writing during the Industrial Revolution, which had a major impact on the world around him.”

12. As well as

Usage: Use “as well as” instead of “also” or “and”. Example: “Scholar A argued that this was due to X, as well as Y.”

13. Not only… but also

Usage: This wording is used to add an extra piece of information, often something that’s in some way more surprising or unexpected than the first piece of information. Example: “Not only did Edmund Hillary have the honour of being the first to reach the summit of Everest, but he was also appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.”

14. Coupled with

Usage: Used when considering two or more arguments at a time. Example: “Coupled with the literary evidence, the statistics paint a compelling view of…”

15. Firstly, secondly, thirdly…

Usage: This can be used to structure an argument, presenting facts clearly one after the other. Example: “There are many points in support of this view. Firstly, X. Secondly, Y. And thirdly, Z.

16. Not to mention/to say nothing of

Usage: “Not to mention” and “to say nothing of” can be used to add extra information with a bit of emphasis. Example: “The war caused unprecedented suffering to millions of people, not to mention its impact on the country’s economy.”

Words and phrases for demonstrating contrast

When you’re developing an argument, you will often need to present contrasting or opposing opinions or evidence – “it could show this, but it could also show this”, or “X says this, but Y disagrees”. This section covers words you can use instead of the “but” in these examples, to make your writing sound more intelligent and interesting.

17. However

Usage: Use “however” to introduce a point that disagrees with what you’ve just said. Example: “Scholar A thinks this. However, Scholar B reached a different conclusion.”

18. On the other hand

Usage: Usage of this phrase includes introducing a contrasting interpretation of the same piece of evidence, a different piece of evidence that suggests something else, or an opposing opinion. Example: “The historical evidence appears to suggest a clear-cut situation. On the other hand, the archaeological evidence presents a somewhat less straightforward picture of what happened that day.”

19. Having said that

Usage: Used in a similar manner to “on the other hand” or “but”. Example: “The historians are unanimous in telling us X, an agreement that suggests that this version of events must be an accurate account. Having said that, the archaeology tells a different story.”

20. By contrast/in comparison

Usage: Use “by contrast” or “in comparison” when you’re comparing and contrasting pieces of evidence. Example: “Scholar A’s opinion, then, is based on insufficient evidence. By contrast, Scholar B’s opinion seems more plausible.”

21. Then again

Usage: Use this to cast doubt on an assertion. Example: “Writer A asserts that this was the reason for what happened. Then again, it’s possible that he was being paid to say this.”

22. That said

Usage: This is used in the same way as “then again”. Example: “The evidence ostensibly appears to point to this conclusion. That said, much of the evidence is unreliable at best.”

Usage: Use this when you want to introduce a contrasting idea. Example: “Much of scholarship has focused on this evidence. Yet not everyone agrees that this is the most important aspect of the situation.”

Adding a proviso or acknowledging reservations

Sometimes, you may need to acknowledge a shortfalling in a piece of evidence, or add a proviso. Here are some ways of doing so.

24. Despite this

Usage: Use “despite this” or “in spite of this” when you want to outline a point that stands regardless of a shortfalling in the evidence. Example: “The sample size was small, but the results were important despite this.”

25. With this in mind

Usage: Use this when you want your reader to consider a point in the knowledge of something else. Example: “We’ve seen that the methods used in the 19th century study did not always live up to the rigorous standards expected in scientific research today, which makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions. With this in mind, let’s look at a more recent study to see how the results compare.”

26. Provided that

Usage: This means “on condition that”. You can also say “providing that” or just “providing” to mean the same thing. Example: “We may use this as evidence to support our argument, provided that we bear in mind the limitations of the methods used to obtain it.”

27. In view of/in light of

Usage: These phrases are used when something has shed light on something else. Example: “In light of the evidence from the 2013 study, we have a better understanding of…”

28. Nonetheless

Usage: This is similar to “despite this”. Example: “The study had its limitations, but it was nonetheless groundbreaking for its day.”

29. Nevertheless

Usage: This is the same as “nonetheless”. Example: “The study was flawed, but it was important nevertheless.”

30. Notwithstanding

Usage: This is another way of saying “nonetheless”. Example: “Notwithstanding the limitations of the methodology used, it was an important study in the development of how we view the workings of the human mind.”

Giving examples

Good essays always back up points with examples, but it’s going to get boring if you use the expression “for example” every time. Here are a couple of other ways of saying the same thing.

31. For instance

Example: “Some birds migrate to avoid harsher winter climates. Swallows, for instance, leave the UK in early winter and fly south…”

32. To give an illustration

Example: “To give an illustration of what I mean, let’s look at the case of…”

Signifying importance

When you want to demonstrate that a point is particularly important, there are several ways of highlighting it as such.

33. Significantly

Usage: Used to introduce a point that is loaded with meaning that might not be immediately apparent. Example: “Significantly, Tacitus omits to tell us the kind of gossip prevalent in Suetonius’ accounts of the same period.”

34. Notably

Usage: This can be used to mean “significantly” (as above), and it can also be used interchangeably with “in particular” (the example below demonstrates the first of these ways of using it). Example: “Actual figures are notably absent from Scholar A’s analysis.”

35. Importantly

Usage: Use “importantly” interchangeably with “significantly”. Example: “Importantly, Scholar A was being employed by X when he wrote this work, and was presumably therefore under pressure to portray the situation more favourably than he perhaps might otherwise have done.”

Summarising

You’ve almost made it to the end of the essay, but your work isn’t over yet. You need to end by wrapping up everything you’ve talked about, showing that you’ve considered the arguments on both sides and reached the most likely conclusion. Here are some words and phrases to help you.

36. In conclusion

Usage: Typically used to introduce the concluding paragraph or sentence of an essay, summarising what you’ve discussed in a broad overview. Example: “In conclusion, the evidence points almost exclusively to Argument A.”

37. Above all

Usage: Used to signify what you believe to be the most significant point, and the main takeaway from the essay. Example: “Above all, it seems pertinent to remember that…”

38. Persuasive

Usage: This is a useful word to use when summarising which argument you find most convincing. Example: “Scholar A’s point – that Constanze Mozart was motivated by financial gain – seems to me to be the most persuasive argument for her actions following Mozart’s death.”

39. Compelling

Usage: Use in the same way as “persuasive” above. Example: “The most compelling argument is presented by Scholar A.”

40. All things considered

Usage: This means “taking everything into account”. Example: “All things considered, it seems reasonable to assume that…”

How many of these words and phrases will you get into your next essay? And are any of your favourite essay terms missing from our list? Let us know in the comments below, or get in touch here to find out more about courses that can help you with your essays.

At Oxford Royale Academy, we offer a number of summer school courses for young people who are keen to improve their essay writing skills. Click here to apply for one of our courses today, including law , business , medicine and engineering .

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How to write an argumentative essay | Examples & tips

How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An argumentative essay expresses an extended argument for a particular thesis statement . The author takes a clearly defined stance on their subject and builds up an evidence-based case for it.

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When do you write an argumentative essay, approaches to argumentative essays, introducing your argument, the body: developing your argument, concluding your argument, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about argumentative essays.

You might be assigned an argumentative essay as a writing exercise in high school or in a composition class. The prompt will often ask you to argue for one of two positions, and may include terms like “argue” or “argument.” It will frequently take the form of a question.

The prompt may also be more open-ended in terms of the possible arguments you could make.

Argumentative writing at college level

At university, the vast majority of essays or papers you write will involve some form of argumentation. For example, both rhetorical analysis and literary analysis essays involve making arguments about texts.

In this context, you won’t necessarily be told to write an argumentative essay—but making an evidence-based argument is an essential goal of most academic writing, and this should be your default approach unless you’re told otherwise.

Examples of argumentative essay prompts

At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response.

Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.

Don’t just list all the effects you can think of.
Do develop a focused argument about the overall effect and why it matters, backed up by evidence from sources.
Don’t just provide a selection of data on the measures’ effectiveness.
Do build up your own argument about which kinds of measures have been most or least effective, and why.
Don’t just analyze a random selection of doppelgänger characters.
Do form an argument about specific texts, comparing and contrasting how they express their thematic concerns through doppelgänger characters.

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An argumentative essay should be objective in its approach; your arguments should rely on logic and evidence, not on exaggeration or appeals to emotion.

There are many possible approaches to argumentative essays, but there are two common models that can help you start outlining your arguments: The Toulmin model and the Rogerian model.

Toulmin arguments

The Toulmin model consists of four steps, which may be repeated as many times as necessary for the argument:

Make a claim
Provide the grounds (evidence) for the claim
Explain the warrant (how the grounds support the claim)
Discuss possible rebuttals to the claim, identifying the limits of the argument and showing that you have considered alternative perspectives

The Toulmin model is a common approach in academic essays. You don’t have to use these specific terms (grounds, warrants, rebuttals), but establishing a clear connection between your claims and the evidence supporting them is crucial in an argumentative essay.

Say you’re making an argument about the effectiveness of workplace anti-discrimination measures. You might:

Claim that unconscious bias training does not have the desired results, and resources would be better spent on other approaches
Cite data to support your claim
Explain how the data indicates that the method is ineffective
Anticipate objections to your claim based on other data, indicating whether these objections are valid, and if not, why not.

Rogerian arguments

The Rogerian model also consists of four steps you might repeat throughout your essay:

Discuss what the opposing position gets right and why people might hold this position
Highlight the problems with this position
Present your own position , showing how it addresses these problems
Suggest a possible compromise —what elements of your position would proponents of the opposing position benefit from adopting?

This model builds up a clear picture of both sides of an argument and seeks a compromise. It is particularly useful when people tend to disagree strongly on the issue discussed, allowing you to approach opposing arguments in good faith.

Say you want to argue that the internet has had a positive impact on education. You might:

Acknowledge that students rely too much on websites like Wikipedia
Argue that teachers view Wikipedia as more unreliable than it really is
Suggest that Wikipedia’s system of citations can actually teach students about referencing
Suggest critical engagement with Wikipedia as a possible assignment for teachers who are skeptical of its usefulness.

You don’t necessarily have to pick one of these models—you may even use elements of both in different parts of your essay—but it’s worth considering them if you struggle to structure your arguments.

Regardless of which approach you take, your essay should always be structured using an introduction , a body , and a conclusion .

Like other academic essays, an argumentative essay begins with an introduction . The introduction serves to capture the reader’s interest, provide background information, present your thesis statement , and (in longer essays) to summarize the structure of the body.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you’ll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true.

In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs, and might be divided into sections with headings.

Each paragraph covers its own topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Each of these topics must contribute to your overall argument; don’t include irrelevant information.

This example paragraph takes a Rogerian approach: It first acknowledges the merits of the opposing position and then highlights problems with that position.

Hover over different parts of the example to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

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An argumentative essay ends with a conclusion that summarizes and reflects on the arguments made in the body.

No new arguments or evidence appear here, but in longer essays you may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your argument and suggest topics for future research. In all conclusions, you should stress the relevance and importance of your argument.

Hover over the following example to see the typical elements of a conclusion.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

Ad hominem fallacy
Post hoc fallacy
Appeal to authority fallacy
False cause fallacy
Sunk cost fallacy

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An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.

In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.

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Examples of argumentative essay prompts. At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response. Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.