How do I start an introduction on an essay on time?

Capture the audience's attention:

One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi...

Everyone remembers counting time in this manner, but what is "time"?

OR start with a joke:

There was a tour bus in Egypt that stopped in the middle of a town square.

The tourists are all shopping at the little stands surrounding the square.

One tourist looks at his watch, but it is broken, so he leans over to a local who is squatted down next to his camel. "What time is it, sir?"

The local reaches out and softly cups the camel's genitals in his hand, and raises them up and down.

"It's about 2:00", he says.

The tourist can't believe what he just saw.

He runs back to the bus, and sure enough, it is 2:00. He tells a few of the fellow tourists his story,

"The man can tell the time by the weight of the camel's genitals!"

One of the doubting tourists walks back to the local and asks him the time, the same thing happens!! It is 2:05.p.m.

He runs back to tell the story. Finally, the bus driver wants to know how it is done.

He walks over and asks the local how he knows the time from the camel's genitals.

The local says "Sit down here and grab the camel's genitals". "Now, lift them up in the air.

Now, look underneath them to the other side of the courtyard, where that clock is hanging on the wall."

It depends on the field. For instance for a Humanities class, they like flourish and embellishments. So you need a punchy quote. In Social science paper they like a thesis statement and a general abstract/summary for the whole paper in beginning. For Life science like Biology that try to use the least amount of words per article, every sentence must be succinct and to the point. I am writing anthropology papers all night and I have to start with a intro (1 page), methods (1 page), Argument and evidence (10 pages) and conclusion (1). Good Luck

You could start with a quote about time, desribe it, and then lead to your thesis, after that add your plan of attack.

Here's an essay I've written: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/50386835/?qo=5...

"The time change this week really fucked me up"