Whether you are writing an essay for school, an article for the web, or a professional report, you must start with a good introduction.  Why?  Think about your own experience as a reader.  If the first two to three sentences do not catch your attention, will you continue to read on?  It's unlikely!  Without a strong introduction, you will turn the page to the next article, or surf to the next site, or pick up the next proposal.  Therefore, if you want your writing to do its job, you must start with a strong introduction.  Here are five steps to help you do it.

1.  Don't neglect the pre-writing process.

Pre-writing should take up most of your time as a writer, unless you have a great deal of experience in what you're writing about (and even then, your writing will be much stronger if you go through the pre-writing process).  Pre-writing begins with research, research, research.  You want to research more than you think you need to, and then after you think you've definitely researched enough, research just a little bit more.  After researching comes the steps of forming a general thesis, then a general outline, then your first draft.  There's much more to be said pre-writing, but for now, stick to those four steps:  research, thesis, outline, draft.  As you will see below, you cannot write an introduction without a thesis, and you cannot write an introduction without knowing where your report will go after your thesis.  My advice?  Write your introduction dead last!