Introduction

The reader first becomes acquainted with your subject in this section of  the paper.  Because first impressions are important, choose each word carefully.  Your reader may know little about your subject, so logical arrangement of your background information is important.  Lead the reader to the central idea statement, which should be the last sentence in your introduction.

The following items are typically included in an introduction:

  1. an opening sentence to catch the reader's interest as well as underscore the purpose of the paper;
  2. background information (who, what, when, where, why);
  3. relevant definitions;
  4. historical perspective which may include interesting statistics, scene descriptions, case studies, or appropriate quotes;
  5. a lead-in to the central idea;
  6. a concise central idea, including the controlling purpose and major points to be discussed in the paper.
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Body
Conclusion
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