I bought a book about essay writing and it is a real god-send. Essay Introductions?

Hi Everyone,

I am in the middle of planning my first assessed essay of the year, but i am having a few problems getting started.

I bought a book about essay writing and it is a real god-send and is full of really useful information. In this book, the author states that when writing a 2000 word essay , your introduction should be approximately 500 - 600 words long. However, my essay has to be 4000 words long, and i am therefore wondering if i should be writing an introduction of about 1000 words long?

It seems a bit too long, but i really dont know, so any advice or expreience would be much appreciated.

Thanks! x

Greetings!

You have asked a good question! The answer is not one which is written in stone; it can vary, depending on the type of essay, the complexity of the topic and your instructor's preferences. When in doubt, ask! However, keep in mind that, depending on font size and margins, one page will be comprised of approximately 275-300 words. Therefore, a 500-600 word introduction will be about 2 pages long. This is a probably a reasonable length for your essay , unless your topic is very broad and complex.

You want your introduction to be long enough to introduce the topic and the focus your essay will be taking, but not so long that your readers lose interest before they've really begun!

Best of luck!

Sarah, EssayForum.com