How to Start an Introduction in APA Style
- 1). Start the introduction on page three of your paper. The title page is the first page, and your abstract appears on page two.
- 2). Center the title of your paper on the top line of this third page before the introduction begins. Do not include the word "Introduction" unless your instructions explicitly state to do so.
- 3). Write a few ideas you want to include in the introduction. For example, a paper detailing a program to help deaf and hard-of-hearing children learn language gives an idea about children having difficulty acquiring language skills and so fall significantly behind in school. The introduction mentiosn that schools of thought to increase skills include instruction in sign language or lip reading or the use of hearing aids but none focus on an all-inclusive approach that the proposed program will use.
- 4). Write an effective hook to start the introduction, something that will get the reader's attention. This might include a startling statistic, a relevant quote or a brief story or description. The paper about the deaf program might use a statistic like this:
According to Brad Smith (2009), spokesman for the National Institute for the Deaf, nearly 75 percent of all deaf and hard-of-hearing students test at least two full grade levels behind their peers in terms of language acquisition.
The hook might be a single sentence like this or a complete paragraph by itself. - 5). Develop a strong thesis for the end of your introduction. The thesis is a single sentence that explains the point of your paper. In APA style, the sentence may announce your topic with language like, "This study will investigate the effects of assistive methods."
- 6). Put the information together in logical order. Begin with the hook, then give information about the background of the issue and end with the thesis. Read aloud to make sure the ideas come across clearly and smoothly.
