Writing an introduction is widely considered one of the most challenging steps in writing a paper. The challenge of writing a great introduction is real, but armed with a good understanding of introductions, a useful metaphor, and some concrete guidelines, the task of hooking your reader, laying out your argument, and asserting your thesis is one you can overcome. In this section, you’ll learn
why you need an introduction,
what goes in an introduction, and
how to construct an effective introduction (and yes, we got lost in the meta trying to write
this introduction!).