What Introductory paragraph a writer should not used

Answer 1

The best way to think of your introduction paragraph is as the hook that catches the fish. If your reader looks at your introduction paragraph, and their attention isn't immediately engaged, they likely won't go any further in your piece. If your piece is something they have to read, they'll likely do so begrudgingly.

Think of your essay as a meal of many courses. The body paragraphs might be these delicious, expertly prepared dishes, but if your introduction paragraph (the appetizer) is bland, it will leave a bad taste in their mouth for the rest of the meal. That's why your introduction paragraph needs to be interesting and intriguing to entice the reader into the rest of the piece.

I teach a simple equation for intro paragraphs: Hook + Summary + Thesis = Intro paragraph. The hook should be something simple (Question, Quote, Anecdote) that draws your reader's attention. Then give your reader a summary of what's to come, and finally, use the thesis to tell the audience what you'll be persuading them of.

Answer 2

Every piece of a work needs to serve the whole, but the first paragraph needs most of all to draw a reader in. Therefore I would argue that the only opener a writer should never use would be one that turns the reader off. Don’t bully your reader, or imply they couldn’t possibly understand an argument as brilliant as yours.

i will argue that you should be careful not hit “submit” until you’ve double-checked for typos and grammatical errors, even in a setting as casual as this one. That’s off-putting, too, and can derail your work before it’s started, because readers may not want to take the trouble to figure out what you meant to say. But I didn’t say that in my first paragraph, because it might have put you off, and because it wasn’t an answer to your question, except by example.