Writing Lab: Introductions
A strong introduction does three things: it establishes a problem or tension worth caring about, it identifies an audience with a stake in that problem, and it ends with a claim specific enough to be wrong.
The claim test. Your thesis should be arguable — not a fact, not a summary, not a truism. If a reasonable person couldn’t disagree, it isn’t a claim. Write your thesis, then ask: what would someone say who thinks I’m wrong? If you can’t answer that, revise.
The audience test. Before you write a word, ask: who needs to hear this, and why should they care? Your introduction should make that answer legible to a reader. You are not writing for everyone. You are writing for someone with a specific problem your argument helps solve.
The throat-clearing test. Read your first sentence. If it could appear at the start of any essay ever written on any topic — “Throughout history, humans have communicated in many ways” — cut it. Start as close to your actual argument as possible. Odell doesn’t open How to Do Nothing with a general claim about technology or modern life. She opens in a rose garden, with a specific crisis of attention. That’s the pressure point. Find yours.
Workshop prompt. Draft an introduction to your essay in 150–200 words. Then take at least an hour or two away from it. Come back with fresh eyes and ask the following of yourself: What is the claim? Who is the audience? Where does the introduction start to stall or go vague? Then revise based on you observe and submit the final version below.
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