Nonfiction: Writing the Introduction

Have you ever walked in on the middle of a play or movie? You generally have no idea what is going on and unless someone explains it to you, you often never really understand the plot. That is what happens when an author leaves out the introduction of a piece of writing.
An introduction serves several purposes. It gets the reader's attention. An introduction also gives a brief summary of the piece. It also describes the intention of the author and what s/he intends to accomplish with the particular piece of writing. An introduction brings order to writing. Just as a conclusion wraps it up, the introduction opens it up. It lets the reader know what's going on.

All pieces of writing require an introduction of some kind. Whether you are writing a letter, a research paper, an editorial, an essay, a short story, a narrative, or, as in this case, a children's nonfiction book, you need an introduction. So how do you write one? Here are some basic steps:

• Get the reader's attention. It doesn't matter how good your writing is if the reader isn't engaged or interested. Here are several useful attention-getters:
• Ask your reader a question pertaining to your topic. Make it a personal experience question. 'Have you ever...' type questions work well (sometimes). Beginning your story with a question gets the reader thinking. It also gets them involved by calling on their personal experience. Your question should set the tone of your paper (casual, personal, informative, formal).
• State an interesting fact or statistic related to your topic. You can combine the question and fact techniques with a 'Did you know that...' question.
  Relate a funny incident which has to do with your topic. It shouldn't be demeaning or crude, just funny.
• State the purpose of your writing or what you intend to prove. The author generally gives a brief overview of the story. Your reader needs a frame of reference to understand what you are going to write about. Be clear and specific. Use techniques of description here to create for the reader the mood you want.

The introduction is a small but crucial part of any piece of writing. Your reader needs the introduction to understand your article and to connect with you, the author. If the introduction is left out, the whole piece of writing lacks structure and usually doesn't make sense.