Use a template to write a persuasive essay introduction

Suppose a student wants to write a persuasive essay.  A million and one ways to begin such an essay exist, small comfort to a student looking for just one reliable way to write an introduction.  Does such a template exist?

Yes.  And using it, a student can write the introduction in five sentences, too, which many teachers require.

• First, think about the topic and write a general sentence relating to that topic.

• Second, write more specifically about the topic in two sentences, heading in the direction of your main idea (thesis) which you should already know from organizing your ideas.

• Third, transition to your main idea (thesis) by connecting what you have just written to what you will write next.

• Fourth, write your main idea.

Let’s try a few examples.

Suppose a fifth grader wants to persuade that soccer is a good sport for kids.  Here is one opening:

• When my grandmother was a kid, none of her friends played soccer.

• Why? Hardly any soccer leagues for kids existed then.  There were baseball leagues and basketball leagues and football leagues, but there were hardly any youth soccer leagues.

• Nowadays, almost every city or town in the US has soccer teams for kids.

• Soccer is a great sport for kids to play because it strengthens muscles, teaches teamwork, and teaches how to accept defeat.

For that same fifth grader, here is another essay introduction:

• My friend, Mario, says baseball is a better sport than soccer for kids.

• My other friend, Julio, says football is better than soccer for kids.

• My sister, Emma, who is tall, says basketball is better than soccer for kids.

• I think they are all wrong.

• Soccer is a great sport for kids to play because it strengthens muscles, teaches teamwork, and teaches how to accept defeat.

Here is a third possible introduction written at a high school level:

• Furia by Y.S. Mendez is a novel about a teenage girl from Argentina who wants to play professional soccer.

• But Camilla is growing too old to be thinking of soccer, according to her father who thinks adult soccer is for men only.

• She should be thinking about boyfriends, he thinks, especially a rich local boy who has made it to a professinal soccer team.

• But Camilla cannot give up her dream to play soccer as an adult, and why should she?

• Soccer is a great sport for young adults to play because it strengthens muscles, teaches teamwork, and teaches how to accept defeat.

Notice that each of these three introductions uses the word “soccer” in the first sentence, alerting the reader that the essay will be about soccer.  Neither first sentence hints that the essay will be about why soccer is good for a kid or young adult.  That doesn’t come until the last sentence of the paragraph, the topic sentence.

All three introductions start out with general ideas:  the first one, that no one in the US played soccer years ago; the second one, that various people think a particular sport is better than soccer; and the third one, that a novel focuses on a girl who wants to play soccer.  Each first sentence idea is developed in the next two sentences.  In the fourth sentence, the focus shifts to an idea connecting the first three sentences to the main idea (thesis) sentence.

What I am suggesting is a pattern you can use to write introductions to persuasive essays.  You don’t need to start from scratch each time you write.  You can use the steps I describe above, fill in the blanks, and write an okay—maybe even great—essay introduction.

For more ideas on how to write, read my book How to Write a 5^th Grade (or any other grade) Essay.  Or contact me for tutoring lessons.  I am now scheduling fall online classes.