Writing an Introduction for your Argument Essay

[KevinMagoosh]

Howdy GMAT takers!

 

I wanted to talk briefly about writing your introduction for your argument essay. It is not a typical introduction, so it is worth talking about.

 

First, your guiding light for the introduction should be brevity. Don't worry about a long preamble or hooking your reader with some related tidbit from history or a quote from a famous person. You only have 30 minutes and you need to get into the meat of your essay as soon as you can. The real heart of your essay is in the body, so don't keep your reader waiting. Quickly establish what is going on and then move on.

 

Second, write about some specifics of the argument. The best introductions will first briefly summarize the argument's main points and the conclusion in one or two sentences. The final part of the introduction is state that the argument is flawed. There are many ways to write this idea, but I recommend coming up with a stalk sentence that you can use during your practice and then use on test day. Every argument you see will be flawed, you know that you will have to mention it, so you might as well be prepared with a sentence that conveys this idea.

 

Third, you don't always have to start with the introduction. Some students find it hard to begin with the introduction—a lot of pressure to summarize. For some students, then, I recommend waiting until the end to write the introduction. By that point, you have written about many different aspects of the argument, and you know what flaws you talked about and why. So you have more context to write the introduction at the very end after finishing the body paragraphs and a conclusion.

 

Those are the tips I have for now. If you have any questions or need me to be more specific, don't hesitate to reach out. :)

 

Cheers!