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How to Start an Essay - A Guide for Topic Selection and Intro Writing

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Phil Williams
How to Start an Essay - A Guide for Topic Selection and Intro Writing

“There is a story that I want to talk about a time when I almost pushed myself into a big problem while flying illegally from Birmingham to London. I was trying to get away from cops, but..” Unfortunately, I have never experienced such a thing and do not have a story to tell you. However, I bet the two opening lines of today’s article must have grabbed your attention. This is exactly how you start an essay.

An essay gives nightmares to many students because they just do not know how to choose a topic and start that topic right. This also affects their grades a lot in their class essays. So, keeping this in mind, today’s article is about discussing how to start an essay. By this, I mean how to choose a topic and write a strong introduction that can grab the attention of your readers, as I did just a few lines above. So, let’s start today’s article with topic selection guidelines.


How to choose the right essay topic?

Choosing an essay topic can be challenging. Topics can be questions, problems, social issues, or global problems, so think about what you want to write about. Having some guidelines about choosing an essay topic is also helpful to students. So, a brief description of the top guidelines is as follows:

1.     Brainstorm the topics

The first technique that you can use to get started with the process is brainstorming the essay topics. Brainstorming means thinking rigorously about the topics and writing the thoughts down on a piece of paper. It does not matter what comes to your mind, just write it down. Brainstorming helps you locate your interest and the things that excite you. So, do it in the first step and write everything that comes to your mind.

2.     Explore handbooks and encyclopaedias 

The next technique to start an essay and select a good topic is to explore the handbooks and encyclopaedias and find what excites you. Such sources can give you a good overview of different subject areas or your intended research areas. They also provide you with relevant background information, as well as key terms to research the topic more. Once you are done with this, you will see dozens of topics in front of you, waiting to be picked.

3.     Evaluate all the potential topics

The next stage is the evaluation stage of all the topics that you have highlighted in the previous step. You evaluate all the factors based on some factors, like the ease of finding information on the topic and its broadness. So, evaluate all the topics and try to find a topic that suits your interests. Many scholars believe that it is easier to work on a topic that excites you.

4.     Choose a topic based on length requirements

As a student, you always have some guidelines from your teacher about essay structure and length. You cannot bypass those instructions and craft an essay of your own length and style. Therefore, when choosing an essay topic, you need to be careful about length requirements. Always choose a topic that can fit into the asked length.

5.     Select one topic and stick to it

The last step is about selecting an essay topic based on the guidelines above and sticking to it. No matter how good a topic you get after selecting a topic, just stick to the previous one and start researching it. The reason is that you now have communicated your topic to your teacher, and it is not easy to change a topic at this stage.

Guidelines for writing an introduction to an essay

An introduction is the starting point of an essay. To start an essay, it is mandatory that its introduction is state of the art. It means it should be clear, focused on the topic, and easy to understand. Therefore, a brief description of the guidelines for writing an essay introduction is as follows:

1.     Catch the reader’s essay attention – Hook your reader

Essay writing services do you work and let you take part in the Annual Fun Mela of your University.” This line must have grabbed your attention once, as every student does not want to work on his essay. Including such a catchy line explaining the benefits or starting with a question is the first step in starting an essay introduction. Such a sentence hooks your reader and does not let him go anywhere till the last word of your essay. So, include a hook in your essay introduction.

2.     Give background information

To start an essay introduction, it is mandatory that you do some preliminary research on the topic. The reason is that an essay introduction requires you to add background information about the topic. This information gives your reader context to understand your topic and argument. For example, you are writing an essay on climate change and global warming. In the introduction of this essay, after the inclusion of the hook, you must give a historical review of this change and changes in the global temperature over the years.

3.     Present your thesis statement

A thesis statement is a proposition or idea that you are going to explore in your essay. So, present your thesis statement after giving some background information. The thesis statement narrows your focus down and shows what you want to do exactly in your essay. The whole of your essay revolves around this statement. So, craft it carefully when writing an introduction.

4.     Map the essay’s structure

Mapping the essay structure is the critical part of an introduction. In this part, you explain to your reader what topics you will be covering in your essay. Keep it concise and give your reader a true sense of what is coming next in the essay.

Conclusion

Conclusively, to start an essay, knowing the topic selection tips and guidelines to write an introduction is a must. Without having knowledge of these things, you can just dream of producing a good essay. Therefore, read the information given above and craft your essay, keeping in view all these guidelines. Happy Essay Writing.

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