There are numerous ways to start an essay and a lot will depend on what you hope to accomplish, what the audience for the essay will be, and any length and depth requirements for the essay. Genre, tone, occasion, and the ideas you hope to communicate will all affect how you present your argument or main topic, so always begin by clarifying for yourself exactly what you need to accomplish.
The Importance of Prewriting
Many students and other writers who sit down to write an essay stumble over getting started because they’re forgetting about a crucial first step–prewriting. Prewriting can loosely be defined as the process of generating, compiling, and giving shape to the ideas you want to discuss in your writing. It can be free-form, such as brainstorming potential topics, or it can be more focused and direct, such as making an intricate outline for a detailed argumentative essay. Anything you do to prepare yourself to write is prewriting, and it should truthfully be the real way you start any essay you write.
Prewriting Saves You Time
Think about it, how many of us sit down at our computer to write an essay, pull up a blank document, and then just…stare? We can hope that the essay will start writing itself, but the truth is that nothing will end up on that page until we take the time to think up the idea and put it into words. When you skip prewriting, you waste precious time spinning your wheels instead of producing words. Instead of just jumping in with both feet and hoping you can swim, consider prewriting as a way to turn that big picture, abstract, thinking up ideas time that’s so necessary to developing an essay into something you can use throughout your writing process.
Prewriting Saves You Effort
The other reason prewriting is so beneficial when starting an essay is that it turns some of the unprocessed thinking we do when writing into processable data. Imagine making a mind map, for instance, such as a word web wherein you place your main idea at the center and draw related ideas around it, branching off to add details. At this stage, you’re not writing, necessarily, but you are putting your ideas into words that you can then turn into the topics that comprise your paper. Instead of having to think up each new topic as you write, you’ll then have a repository of ideas sitting there for you in your prewriting. You can then take those ideas and fill out an outline, or keep them in front of you as you write.
Starting an Essay
By now you’ve probably figured out that the best way to start your essay is to engage in prewriting, but what do you do once you’ve done that? Well, at that point, your goal is to translate all the ideas you got out during prewriting into a cohesive idea. To do that, you need to determine a few important factors about the kind of essay you plan to write. Ask yourself the following questions.
- What is the purpose of my writing?
- What is the most important takeaway I want my reader to have?
- Will I be making an argument, sharing information, summarizing, telling a story, or completing some other task when writing?
- Which supporting details will I need to include to make my main idea clear?
- Which tone and genre is appropriate for conveying what I want to convey?
Once you have these thoughts in mind, you’re ready to begin translating your ideas into a structured essay.
Examples of Starting an Essay
“Okay,” you might be saying to yourself, “but how do I literally, physically get started?” There are a few different approaches. Some people like to just go for it and begin writing whatever section of their essay contains the ideas that are foremost in their heads at the moment. They then go in and fill details in in front of or behind wherever they started, saving the introduction and conclusion for last once their ideas have started to come together. Others claim that they like to get all their ideas out at once and then muddle through the editing process to string it all together later. These types of people are particularly adept at editing, are usually highly creative, and tend to think of ideas in “scrambled” ways that they can then untangle later.
We aren’t here to tell you that those approaches won’t work, as everyone processes information differently, but not everyone can operate in this unique way; most people need to create some kind of plan for their essay. Here are two approaches that are effective for most people when using pre-writing to plan an effective essay.
Example Pre-Writing Worksheet
This approach is similar to the question-based process we laid out before, but it goes further by encouraging the writer to articulate their most important ideas before they begin writing. To do so for an essay, answer the following questions for yourself:
- My purpose for writing this essay is to ____________________.
- The main thing I want to argue or explain to my reader is that ____________________.
- The most important takeaway for the reader should be ____________________.
- If I were to summarize my argument in one sentence, it would be: ____________________.
- The 2-4 most important subtopics for understanding my main topic are:
(A) ________________________________________.
(B) ________________________________________.
(C) ________________________________________.
(D) ________________________________________.
There is no rule saying that you can’t change your approach as you write; in fact, most good writers have to do so as they refine their ideas, integrate new evidence, or recognize new connections between elements of the essay. However, it’s important to have a starting goal to help you clarify the argument you’re aiming for…otherwise, you’re just sort of taking a shot in the dark!
Example of an Essay Outline
Perhaps you already have a fairly developed sense of what you want to write about. Maybe you just completed the prewriting worksheet exercise or you made an exhaustive bibliography with all your sources and the things you’d like to say about each. If this is the case, you are ready to begin working on an outline.
There are many schools of thought on making outlines and the variety of approaches is myriad. Suffice to say, the most important thing an outline should do is be functional for you, the writer. Think of it as a roadmap to the essay you plan to write. By deciding which elements of your argument should be presented when, you have a better chance of writing a logical, organized, well-supported essay from the outset. In turn, this saves you time on the editing end of the process.
Basic Essay Outline Template
Tentative Essay Title:
Introduction
Hook:
Thesis Statement:
Body
- Body Paragraph 1 Topic Sentence:
Supporting Details:
Examples for Supporting Details:
- Body Paragraph 2 Topic Sentence:
Supporting Details:
Examples for Supporting Details:
..and so on for as many body paragraphs as you need.
Conclusion
Restated Thesis:
Concluding Ideas:
Example Using Basic Essay Outline Template
Here, we’ve given you an example for a short argumentative essay on rainforest conservation. As you look at the example essay outline, pay attention to how much detail is (or is not) given. For instance, in certain places, the writer saves themselves time by writing a tentative thesis statement and topic sentences directly into their outline. Later, they’ll be able to copy and paste these sentences directly into their essay. This is a very detailed way to include ideas. In other spots, where the writer is still forming some of their ideas, they’ve included more vague notes about the kind of information they’d like to include when they get to that point. It’s fine if your outline is a combination of both sentences you can drop directly into your essay and less specific ideas for what you’ll plan to write when the time comes. All information in an outline is tentative, meaning it can be changed later as needed.
Tentative Essay Title: Rainforest Conservation is Critical
Introduction
Hook: Every single year, 8 million hectares of rainforest are destroyed, yet we need the forests to sustain life on Earth.
Thesis Statement: The two most important ways that the average person can help fight the destruction of the rainforest are shopping like an informed consumer and reducing overall consumption of paper and wood products.
Body
- Body Paragraph 1 Topic Sentence: When shopping at the store, consumers should avoid products that unduly contribute to the deforestation of the rainforests.
Supporting Details: Talk about which products are bad, which alternatives are better, some of the biggest offenders and how consumers can make better choices.
Examples for Supporting Details: Palm oil is found in common products, like Nutella and other sweets, but is a main driver of deforestation, contributing to the loss of traditional orangutan habitats over time.
- Body Paragraph 2 Topic Sentence: Just as most people can make more informed choices at the supermarket, it’s important that people also start being more mindful about how many paper and wood products they consume.
Supporting Details: Discuss all the different products we don’t think about, as well. Mention how corporations also must do their part.
Examples for Supporting Details: Use quotations from the Hebdiger book about deforestation in Brazil.
..and so on for as many body paragraphs as you need.
Conclusion
Restated Thesis: Both reducing the number of paper and wood products one uses and making eco-conscious choices when shopping are effective ways to support rainforest conservation efforts.
Concluding Ideas: Discuss some of the cutting-edge ideas that might help us conserve even more of the rainforest in the future and end by reminding the reader everyone can do their part.
How to Start an Introduction for an Essay
The introduction more or less writes itself once you get through an extensive pre-writing process. However, there are a few important elements you want to consider when writing your introduction and the parts of your essay that should relate back to it.
Thesis Statements
Even though the thesis statement is most often the last sentence in your introduction, you’ll want to start with it so you can get an idea of how you want to introduce the idea to your reader. A thesis statement is a single statement, usually one sentence long, that summarizes your argument in total.
Many times, a thesis statement may also preview some of the most important subtopics of an essay, such as by saying an event had x number of causes, or an idea has x number of important elements, where x represents the number of subtopics that will be discussed in the body of the essay. The subtopics can thus be presented in the essay in the same order they were previewed. Consider the following example:
Angela Merkel was a strong leader for Germany because she was good at negotiating across the aisle, remained calm in the face of crises, and always considered the country’s needs first.
In this thesis, the author’s argument is that Angela Markel was a strong leader for Germany. The subtopics they will use to prove that argument include Merkel’s negotiation skills, with will be discussed first, her calmness during crises, which will be discussed second, and her loyalty to her country, which will be discussed at the end. The writer could then talk about the elements together or move on to their conclusion. Thus, the single thesis statement lays out the entire argument and the order in which it will be presented.
Hook
There are lots of different ways to hook your reader, whether it’s presenting a startling fact, asking a rhetorical question, or giving necessary background information for understanding the thesis statement. The most important thing is to get your reader’s attention and then connect that attention-grabber to the topic of your essay. You need to write the thesis first so you know which kind of attention-grabber will most effectively suit it. As you might suspect, using an effective thesis statement makes it easy to plan out your essay. You simply must break down the argument in the same way you laid it out in your introduction.
Topic Sentences = Mini Thesis Statements
As you move between topics in the body of your essay, consider the first sentence of each new topic a “mini” thesis statement that introduces the subtopic and relates it both to what came before it and the overall main idea. Transition between ideas to show how they connect to what you introduced before, then use the topic sentence to introduce your new direction.
Conclusions Are For Restating Your Argument, but Differently
Remember that a conclusion is an introduction in reverse. You should restate your thesis in slightly different words, talk about any further ideas or topics for consideration that might enrich what you’ve discussed, and bring it all to a nice close. Remember, too, as you finish your essay, to go back and make sure your initial thesis matches the essay you ended up writing. If it doesn’t, modify it so it does.
