The introduction gives the audience a reason to listen to the remainder of the speech. A good introduction needs to get the audience’s attention, state the topic, make the topic relatable, establish ...

What makes a good introduction for a dissertation? Graduate students practice critiquing one another’s thesis chapters, but they rarely read the introductions — usually because those are written to ...

Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent. – Dionysius of Halicarnassus Students of persuasive speech learn a skill, a craft, and an art. Contents come and go; speaking effectively is an ...

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.