This handout is available for download in DOCX format and PDF format. In the most abstract sense, the function of an introductory paragraph is to move the reader from the world of daily life into the ...

A thesis must always demonstrate an argument. If you are not trying to prove something and persuade your audience to accept your point of view, you are not writing an academic paper. Your thesis is ...

Extended "discourse," such as class presentations or essays written as school assignments, has a particular structure arising from particular expectations and standards. Such structure, expectations, ...

While small business owners prefer to continue researching and developing new products for the market, they might need private or public funding to do so. Bankers and other investors may not have the ...

Authors and editors in the humanities know that journals are more likely to accept scholarly essays with strong introductions and that such essays are more likely to influence academic conversations.

In the most abstract sense, the function of an introductory paragraph is to move the reader from the world of daily life into the textual and analytical space of an essay. In a more concrete sense, an ...