2.6 Introductions are almost always essential
Introductions are necessary in most, if not all, the writing tasks you will perform in law school. The particular purpose and detail of your introduction will depend on the purpose of your document, but in most kinds of legal writing, a good introduction seeks to introduce the reader not just to the subject of the document but also to the document itself. It will orient the reader by letting them know what the document is about and what the document is doing in relation to the subject matter. An introduction is somewhat like the on-ramp of a motorway: it enables your reader to get up to speed so that they can make headway into the rest of the document.
TIP: LEAVE MYSTERY TO MYSTERY NOVELS
The main purpose of the introduction is to introduce your reader to your document and to prepare them for what follows. Your document is not a mystery novel where you need to keep crucial things hidden for the surprise ending. Outline your purpose and the structure as clearly as you can, with sufficient specificity to enable the reader to know where your document is going and to correctly anticipate how your document will end.
In a professional context, such as writing legal advice, it is common to put your conclusion in the introduction. This is because you are providing information as a service, and making the most important information easily accessible to your client is good service. On other occasions, the role of the introduction may be more about drawing the reader into the document and making them want to read the rest of what you wrote. For example, if you were writing to persuade someone that a law should be reformed, your introduction should start by pointing this out clearly and could set the scene with a vivid illustration of problems with the current law and a suggestion, if not an outright statement, of what the solutions (if any) may be. In all cases, the introduction needs to be useful to the reader.
Depending on the length and complexity of your document, it may be appropriate for your introduction to provide a short roadmap of the rest of the document, by briefly identifying the sections that are to come and what they do. This makes the most important information easy to access by letting the reader know what is in store. You should, of course, make sure that your document does go on to deliver what you have promised.
The length of a good introduction will vary. Most often it will be a matter of proportionality: the shorter the document, the shorter the introduction. If you are only writing a paragraph, then the topic sentence of that paragraph will serve as an introduction. If you are writing a page, then you might only need a few sentences of introduction. If you are writing a 3,000-word piece, then a few paragraphs is usually enough.
