Introductory Paragraph
Personal Essay
(“This I Believe”)
Writers need a powerful hook to attract the reader’s attention and sustain their interest.
Avoid beginning your essay with the statement “This I Believe.” You can state your belief after your hook.
You may want to visit the youth essay database again for more ideas.
Attention-getting strategies for introductory paragraphs:
1. Question:
Example: What if everyone in the world was exactly alike? What if everyone talked the same, acted the same, listened to the same music, and watched the same T.V. programs? The world would be extremely dull! I believe it’s important to accept people for who they are.
Example: What is the first thing you do when you get into a car? Turn on the radio? Adjust your mirrors? Start dialing a friend's number on your cell phone? The first thing I do is buckle up. Call me crazy, but I firmly believe that seatbelts can save your life. Why believe it? Well, because I have seen what happens when a person's safety belt has been neglected.
2. Quotation (from someone famous or from someone significant in your life):
Example: “I am Sam. Sam I am. And, yes, I do eat green eggs and ham.” When I mention green eggs and ham, I don’t mean the discolored sun of the sunny side up or the deformed slab of partially cooked meat that have become a part of modern children’s literature. No, I’m talking about diving – not tiptoeing, not inching, not sliding, but diving – into the deep. This means trying something new and striving to achieve every single day, while always searching for new perspectives and ways of doing things, even if the end result isn’t always as one might expect. Just like the Dr. Seuss character who refuses to eat for the first fifty seven pages of the book, only by finding and gulping down our own green eggs and ham can we really live and grow.
3. Strong statement:
Example: I remember how Natasha hated looking in mirrors. How mercilessly she would pinch and tug at her skin, committing aggressive acts of punishment for each imperfection she found. Bruises stained her arms and legs, marring her translucent skin. Natasha was always cold, and she delighted in it. Even on the humid summer days, she would wear sweaters and shiver ecstatically with accomplishment. I remember my palpable jealousy, my admiration of her fragile beauty, of her weightlessness. She was free, bone-thin and gravity defying. That was before I realized what she was sacrificing.
Example: I believe in silly dances. Ever since I was 13, my mother has delivered the ultimate embarrassment tool on her children. Known as the "silly dance," whenever she gets excited about something, she jumps up and down, hopping from one foot to another, waving her arms in the air and shrieking in excitement. As her daughter, I find this completely mortifying. Anytime she goes into the silly dance, my siblings and I would suddenly inch slowly away smiling awkwardly, explaining to people, "No, she's not my mother."
4. Before/After Snapshot
Example: My whole life I have viewed myself as an eagle flying high above the world around me. Telling myself I’m not someone who can make a difference. I wished I could be. I thought that maybe, someday, possibly, hopefully, I could inspire a change… But I need to finish my homework first. Or I need to wait until I have the time. I left the work up to someone else. Someone else who is powerful, inspiring, and creative, all of these characteristics that I would never use to describe myself. I lived by the mantra “not me”.
5. Description (of a person, thing, setting):
Example: I carry a Rubik’s Cube in my backpack. Solving it quickly is a terrific conversation starter and surprisingly impressive to girls. I’ve been asked to solve the cube on the New York City subway, at a track meet in Westchester and at a café in Paris. I usually ask people to try it first. They turn the cube over in their hands, half-heartedly they make a few moves and then sheepishly hand it back. They don’t even know where to begin. That’s exactly what it was like for me to learn how to read. Letters and words were scrambled and out of sequence. Nothing made sense because I’m dyslexic.