Three Introductions

    Introduction that gives a context to the thesis statement that is to follow:

    Never mind for a moment whether these Bulls rank with the 1971-1972 Los Angeles Lakers, the 1982-1983 Philadelphia 76ers or the 1985-1986 Boston Celtics as one of the greatest teams of all time.  Is this team as great as its predecessors in Chicago, the Bulls of 1991, 1992, and 1993 who achieved a championship trifecta?  Among those three Chicago teams, the 1990-1991 squad was the best. After years of being intimidated by the Detroit Pistons, it was as hungry as any in recent memory and stormed through the post season with only two losses.
    Still, there is no question that this current Bills' squad is far superior to the 1990-1991 team, primarily because Scottie Pippen has been playing his heart out.  Dennis Rodman is more than a match for his counterparts in rebounding.  And Michael Jordan is the best all around player in the NBA. All of these pieces add up to the inescapable conclusion that this is the best Bull's team ever.


Introduction that begins and ends with a thesis statement.

    High schools should make condoms available to the students.  It is much more difficult to be a teenager now than twenty years ago; consequently, the kids in the world today are forced to grow up faster.  They are more worldly in attitudes than the teenagers of a generation ago, and are engaging in sex at a higher rate than ever before (Malcom 34).  While they maybe capable physically, emotionally, they  are ill prepared for the consequences of such actions.  "Teens face not only unwanted pregnancy because of their early sexual activity, but they also face the emotional distress of the results of that pregnancy on their lives (72).  At the same time, teens are playing Russian Roulette with their bodies. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are ravaging our young people because of unprotected sex.
    If  condoms are made  readily available in the high schools, free of charge, there is  a chance to end teenage unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Introduction that begins with an anecdote that shows the importance of the thesis statement at the end.
 
The three yellow school busses turn sharply off the paved road onto a rutted dirt road canopied by ancient trees. Their branches swoop down, strike the busses and snake into the open windows. Some of the 120 students in my senior English class riding these buses scream. I smile; it happens every year.
The buses climb a winding road past decaying shacks and the crumbling ruins of the first
African American community in Kansas City, Kansas, before dipping into a valley where a
small stream crosses. The bus driver pauses at the wooden bridge in our front, and turns to me questioningly. Several students urge her not to go on.
"It’s all right." I say. "The bridge will hold the busses, and you can make the turn at the other end easily."

"It’s trying to make the turn coming back that is the problem," I think silently. The lines of

yellow paint left when the bus banged off the guardrails last year stand out on its rusted surface. I look to see if the driver attaches any significance to the evidence of last year’s scrape, but she is concerned only with negotiating the narrow bridge and the tight turn just beyond.
I never get the same bus drivers two trips in a row.

The buses climb a steep hill to the Old Quindaro Cemetery, established in 1850. There the

students climb out and look down on the Missouri River winding through the valley that
separates Kansas from Missouri today and freedom from slavery in 1850. Awaiting our arrival below us are the ruins of the town of Old Quindaro, an Underground Railroad site. It lies tangled in the river bottom brush, five miles and 150 years from our departure site, Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas. The students wander through the cemetery containing the remains of the founders of the town taking pictures, making rubbings of the tombstones or taking notes on the inscriptions. I walk among them taking pictures of them and of the site to be used in the web pages we will construct as the first step in preserving the story of the community.
This is the first stop on a research trip that I have been taking for the last seven years with my senior English class. It is used as a beginning for a year of community research in those classes.  Research that is the most effective ways for connecting disconnected students with the community in which they all live. (read the entire article) http://www.arthes.com/community/ncte/jan15/ncte.html
Introduction for a paper that disagrees with a specific point of view.
     In "Second thoughts on subsidies for Internet access," Matthew Keating and Raymond J. Keating use the Columbine tragedy to question the wisdom of using the Internet as an educational tool in America's classrooms. They argue that use of the Internet will "turn students' faces away from each other and their teachers toward a glowing screen"  (4).

     This assumption that using the Internet in schools will isolate students shows a lack of understanding about how the Internet fosters students  collaboration within the classroom while connecting them to the world outside of the classroom. (read the entire article) http://www.arthes.com/community/iarecord.html