Writing an essay for the TOEFL can be difficult on many levels, from understanding the question to phrasing each sentence. In this series, I will walk you through writing an essay for the TOEFL, from beginning to end. In this post, I talk about writing the introductory paragraph.

The introductory paragraph needs to accomplish two things: draw the reader into the topic, and communicate your thesis, or general response to the question or prompt.

First, let’s recall the question from our previous posts:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? There is nothing that young people can teach older people. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

The basic thesis was:

There certainly are things that older people can learn from young people.

Notice that this directly answers the question asked, because it is an explicit disagreement with the presented statement. This direct answer must be included in your introductory paragraph. More specifically, it comes at the end of your introductory paragraph.

Why start talking about the end of the paragraph? First, because you should already have an outline for your essay, and if you have an outline, you should already have a thesis. And second, because the beginning  of the paragraph is an introduction to your thesis, so you need to know what the thesis is.

Now that you know your thesis,  how will you  introduce it? This is an open question, because there are many, many  possible  answers. However, there are a few good strategies for doing this.

1. Be very general. Start with a very general observation. Here, it might be something like, “Everyone has something to teach.” Follow with a few sentences about how, for example, each person’s experience is unique, and their perspective is valuable. Then transition to your thesis (“Younger people are no exception to this rule; therefore, they have much to teach older people”).

2. Be very specific. Start with a story that illustrates the issue. Talk about how you taught your grandfather how to use the Internet, or how you recommended a younger style of music to a teacher or parent who grew to like it, and then lead into your thesis. (“This shows how young people definitely have things to teach older people.”)

3. Talk about the social context. Is there a general social issue that is related to this topic? In this case, there is perhaps the fact that social and technological change are happening faster than ever. By starting with that, and maybe pointing out that older beliefs and ways of doing things are more and more antiquated, you can then transition into the thesis. (“Now more than ever, young people have much to teach older people.”)

4. Be a contrarian. Start by describing a generally-held opinion or piece of conventional wisdom that contradicts your thesis (for example, “Many people think that the young have nothing to teach older people”). Describe this view, then transition into your thesis by disagreeing with it (“However, it is clear that this view is wrong, and young people in fact have a lot to teach older people”).

There are thousands of ways to introduce a topic, but I don’t know of any issue that none of these strategies can be used to introduce.