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Writing an Introduction

Your introduction may be the most important part of your document. The decision to read or not read a document is frequently made in less than a minute. If the topic is not interesting or not clearly presented, your audience may very well decide not to read what you have gone to great lengths to write.

Creating a good introduction depends on a careful consideration of your purpose and audience and of the organization of the information you will present.

In most academic writing, a direct approach is advised, in which the thesis is stated explicitly, either in one sentence or in several consecutive sentences. Additionally, a good introduction, minimally, tells a reader

the topic of the subsequent material,
the context in which it is presented,
how the material has been divided into sections,
and the order in which these sections will be presented.

Ideally, the structure of the entire document can be reconstructed from the Introduction.