Good Beginnings Title

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Good BeginningsTitle Introduction Paragraph
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Catching the Readers InterestThe Importance of
the Title

• Good titles attract attention and make readers
  want to read
• Poor My Goal to be an airplane pilot
• Better Up, Up, and Away!
• Good titles announce the tone of the piece
• Poor My Sad Birthday
• Better Tears on my Birthday Cake

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Dos and Donts of Title Writing

• Do write the title at the top center of the page
• Do capitalize the first and last words as well as
  all important words dont capitalize a, an, and,
  the, etc unless they are the first or last word
• Do not underline or put your title in quotation
  marks
• Do not put a period at the end of a title you
  may use a question mark or exclamation point if
  appropriate
• Do keep your title short and to the point Dont
  write a complete sentence
• Dont use a mere label or a boring, cliché title
• Do consider the tone of your essay funny, sad,
  angry, formal, informal, etc

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Structure of the introduction paragraph
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Attention Getters

• Quote or literary allusion
• I was angry with my friend. I told my wrath, my
  wrath did end. I was angry with my foe, I told it
  not, my wrath did grow. William Blake
• Relevant story, joke, anecdote
• A momma mouse and baby mouse were crossing the
  road when a cat jumped in front of them. The
  clever momma mouse yelled, Ruff, Ruff! The
  surprised cat ran away. The momma mouse said to
  her baby, Now you know the importance of
  speaking a foreign language!

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• A Contrast
• Eat more and lose weight fast!
• Abraham Lincoln in 1832 - Ran for State
  Legislature and LOST as well as losing his job
  that same year. In 1838 he was defeated in his
  attempt to become speaker of the state
  legislature and in 1843 he ran for Congress and
  LOST. In 1854 he ran for the Senate of the United
  States and LOST. However, Despite all of these
  setbacks Abraham Lincoln was still elected
  President of the United States in 1860.
• A Historical Approach
• Establish credibility
• Set the stage

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Errors to avoid in lead-ins

• Make sure the attention getter matches the thesis
  statement!
• Keep the lead in brief
• Dont begin with an apology or complaint
• Dont assume the audience knows the subject
• Stay clear of boring, overused lead-ins

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Connecting the attention getter to the thesis
statement

• The lead in should be followed by a general
  statement that transitions from the lead in to
  the topic.
• The next few sentences get more and more specific
  and provide information to the reader about the
  topic and your opinion of the topic.
• The thesis and plan of development are the final
  sentences in your introductory paragraph.

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One good example

• I was angry with my friend. I told my
  wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe,
  I told it not, my wrath did grow. (William
  Blake, A Poison Tree). Most people believe they
  can tell the difference between friends and
  enemies. It seems simple. Friends are good to
  us, and enemies are not. However, it has often
  happened that someone we once considered a friend
  became an enemy. And what a deadly enemy old
  friends can be! Old friends know all our secrets
  and private affairs. They often share the same
  friends and can turn them against us with their
  evil whisperings. Before trusting anyone with
  your most private affairs, you need to make sure
  he or she is a true friend and not a friend
  turned enemy.

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Another good example

• How do you do it? How do you get those
  good grades and have a life? A friend asked me,
  Do you have a method that you can teach me?
  Yes, I replied. I do. And everyone can learn
  it! I have been going to school for many years,
  and I have learned that there is more to getting
  good grades in college than simply attending
  classes and taking tests. Students who understand
  the system and use it to their advantage get
  further faster, and so can you. The Teacher
  Suck-up Method wont get you an A if you get
  an F on every assignment. However, the
  Teacher Suck-Up Method can help you get bumped
  up a higher grade than your test scores indicate
  by getting your teachers to know your name and
  care about you as a person. If you follow the
  steps for before, during, and after class
  sessions, your teachers will find themselves
  giving you a higher grade.