8 Ways to Start an Essay with examples

The first few minutes of going through the assignment brief should make it easy to choose a quote that’s relevant to the central theme of the topic. Just make sure you don’t interfere with its original meaning as intended by its author. They are cliché – this is normally not an issue if the quote is strong and strictly to the point. For instance, its belonging to professionals in a given narrow discipline would normally be intelligible only for people with studies in this same field. In this case, select quotes that would be neither too obvious nor too complex. There are other aspects that could count as well, such as an audience’s age, its experience, gender, interests, familiarity with US history , etc.

how to open an essay with a quote

You can also quote from the text you’re reviewing or critiquing to back up your opinion. https://stp-world.biglow.co/2022/11/30/what-is-a-controlling-idea/ This article explains the methods of introducing your quote in an essay.

How to write an essay introduction

Students highlight the most interesting of these and consider how they would use them as a hook in writing an essay on the topic. Students should choose the statistic or fact carefully, it should be related to their general thesis, and it needs to be noteworthy enough to spark the reader’s curiosity.

The quotation needs to be introduced in your own words. The quote only needs to be capitalized if it begins the sentence or if the first word of the quote is a proper noun, like the name of a person or a place. A snappy quotation that doesn’t help to set up your topic, or that is unrelated to the rest of your essay, will distract from the essay’s focus. Strike a balance between assuming your audience knows everything and assuming they know nothing. You should be clear and informative but not insulting to the intelligence of your reader. Knowing the context in which the quotation was originally used is important to using it accurately.

Examples of How to Start an Essay with a Quote

Pick a quotation that supports your argument and convinces your reader. Usually, it is the results of credible research, an opinion of a subject matter expert, or confirmed statistics.

how to open an essay with a quote

It is up to you how you are going to incorporate a quote into your essay. This post was co-written by me and Luci Jones (Brown University, CO ‘23). Luci took my How to Write short essay length a Personal Statement course last year. At times, an essay can appear painfully discorded if the quotations are out of place or if the essay is too stuffed with quotes.

Categorization of GRE Essay Topics

Overusing quotes is a terrible idea, because it will make an impression that you can’t paraphrase well. Generally, one quote in every 750 words is a maximum that you should reach. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal implicit thesis experience. It is also crucial to contribute your own thoughts, not just the author’s. Choose quotes that are related to the topic or theme of your essay. Like I said previously, different citation styles have their own way of referencing a quote.

  1. I found that they are advantageous,but i don’t think that i can get used of them in a short time.
  2. Although searching fore quotes might be time-consuming, student should know that there are multiple methods that facilitate this process.
  3. At a grade school, or even a high school level, sometimes this might be overlooked as a novice error or inexperienced oversight.
  4. Using quotes in your essay is a good way to hook the reader, engaging with them and enticing them to continue reading.
  5. Make sure that the quote is accurate to what the person said.
  6. To get some experience posing rhetorical questions, organize your students into small groups, and give each group a list of essay thesis statements suited to their age and abilities.

The page number will be written at the end, there is no need to use anything to signify that it is a page number. Under the MLA citation guidelines, how long is the average college essay you will add the page number after the name of the author. Begin a sentence with your own words, then complete it with quoted words.

Can I quote my grandmother?

If you are unsure, then continue reading this blog post. Here, we have explained the most effective ways to begin an essay with a quote. Also, from this blog post, learn in detail how to find a perfect quote and include that in the introductory paragraph of your essay.

  1. If the context and wording of the quote speak to you, you’re more likely to connect it to your essay effectively.
  2. The statements of a brilliant thinker within your field are considered a way to make your essay stand out from the piles of other writings.
  3. Refrain from overcrowding your essay with words of wisdom from famous people.
  4. But purpose-written opening sentences tend to have a broader latitude than quotes, and therefore more powerful than the latter.

From the first few words, the admissions officer will be fully engaged in reading your essay. For example, “I am forever bound to the hyphen,” is a thought-provoking and interesting statement. “I change my name each time I place an order at Starbucks,” is a unique way to begin a college essay.

Begin your essay with I

You can find countless examples of this set up in essays online; do some research and see how authors use contradiction and fill in the gap techniques to write strong essay openings. Questions are nice essay introductions because they ask the reader to think about your topic. By starting your essay like this, you’re cutting right to the chase. An introduction that directly states your thesis can be a great choice for an analytical essay. If your reader has to perform a web search for your quote to figure out how it relates to the rest of your essay, it’s not relevant enough to use. Go with another quote that your text can easily explain. You can make a strong first impression by using an introduction with a quote for your essay.

Understand that relevant, helpful, and equally credible quotes can capture the attention of a reader, not to mention easily related the thesis statement of your essay. You can start an essay with a quote, but you must do so with caution. Accompany the quote with a clear explanation to help a reader understand how and why it fits in your work. More importantly, ensure the quote you include in your essay is from a credible scholarly source. Although searching fore quotes might be time-consuming, student should know that there are multiple methods that facilitate this process. Thus, there are good books containing collections of quotes split into different categories listed in alphabetical order – this should be efficient for general topics. Alternatively, employ online search engines with carefully formulated queries, which are much more flexible tools.

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Besides, your readers will want to know where you got the quote from, and you must make it easy for them to find it. Such quotes how to quote from an article in an essay can be interesting enough to draw attention, but they won’t fit in an academic essay because they’re your own thoughts.

What is an example of starting an essay with a quote?

For example: ‘Once Jane Smith said something completely awesome: 'the awesome thing she said. '’ Begin with the quote. If you begin with the quote, be sure to place a comma after the quote and then provide a verb and attribute the quotation to the source.

That’s the case especially when you’re short on time but have a tight deadline to beat. You can simply reach out to us and we’ll help you get your essay assignment completed in good time. There’s also the problem of limited range of expression, as you don’t have the room to expand on another author’s quotations besides summarizing or paraphrasing it. If a reader can memorize the quote within the first 30 seconds of reading, go for it. Even if a quote is interesting enough to fit the central theme of the essay prompt, you should avoid it in favor of a short, clear quote. If your teacher asks you where you got the quote from and you tell them you made it up, they’ll more than likely not read the essay past the introduction.

Can You Use Personal Pronoun in an Argumentative Essay?

Students must consider the topic, purpose, tone, and audience of the essay they’re writing before deciding how best to open it. Once you have worked past the start of your essay, please explore our complete guide to polishing an essay before submitting it and our top 5 tips for essay writing. If you use a single line extract of a poem, punctuate it like any other short quotation without the slashes. Quotation marks are required at the beginning and at the end of the extract. However, if your quotation is more than three lines of poetry, I would suggest that you treat it like you would have treated a long quotation from prose. Using too many quotations is like having several people shouting on your behalf. Refrain from overcrowding your essay with words of wisdom from famous people.

  1. For example, a paper written for gamers could use a quote from a game designer like Steve Jackson while one aimed at artists might quote from a painter like Paul Gauguin.
  2. He states, “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space” (Hamlet 2.2).
  3. Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on UnsplashQuotations are effective for starting your introduction for two primary reasons.
  4. Students can practice replicating this process for various essay topics.
  5. Quotes provide a succinct expression of the author’s point of view, opinion, or response, often used to focus attention on an issue.
  6. Although creating the introduction is probably the most arduous part of writing an essay, integrating citations into the main part of the text also has some specialties.

This a stylistic choice that should match the subject matter you’re exploring. Frustratingly, writing an essay introduction can often be the hardest part. But don’t hit https://comely.es/2023/01/23/introductory-paragraphs/ “submit” just yet—you’re only halfway to the finish line. Quotes are one of the most potent tools that writers of all types can employ in their creative arsenal.

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