Last semester, my professor spent an entire class on openings, and it transformed how I think about structuring the start of an essay. She broke it down into three parts: the hook, the context, and the thesis. The hook grabs attention—maybe a surprising fact, a question, or a short anecdote.
The context gives readers just enough background to understand why the topic matters. And the thesis states your main argument clearly. She showed us examples of weak openings that just announced the topic ('This paper will discuss...') versus strong ones that made you want to keep reading. Now I use this framework every time. I don't have to be creative from scratch—I just fill in the three parts.
My intros are better, and I spend way less time stressing. For anyone wondering how to structure essay openings, try the hook-context-thesis model. It's like training wheels that eventually come off.
The context gives readers just enough background to understand why the topic matters. And the thesis states your main argument clearly. She showed us examples of weak openings that just announced the topic ('This paper will discuss...') versus strong ones that made you want to keep reading. Now I use this framework every time. I don't have to be creative from scratch—I just fill in the three parts.
My intros are better, and I spend way less time stressing. For anyone wondering how to structure essay openings, try the hook-context-thesis model. It's like training wheels that eventually come off.
