How should I write a good introduction to an essay?

For an A Level English essay, your introduction should be relatively short and to the point, whilst achieving three objectives. Firstly, you need to show that you understand the question. The examiners will be expecting you just to blurt out a pre-prepared essay which doesn't really answer the question, so if you can show from the very beginning that your essay is aimed at answering the exam question, this will single you out from the crowd. Secondly, you should demonstrate some contextual knowledge surrounding the topic: this can be a bit of historical context relevant to the question or a quotation from a critic who has written about the topic. Try and keep this knowledge specific and avoid generalizations - a bit of specific knowledge or a well placed quotation really makes the essay seem scholarly and interesting, rather than one huge point, evidence explain - it will distinguish the essay from a GCSE answer. Finally, you need to set out your argument for the essay. This doesn't need to be overly specific or complicated, but you just need to lay out what you want to cover and what you want to achieve in the essay. This will make the rest of the essay seem driven and purposeful, rather than simply a collection of points and quotations vaugely relevant to the topic of the question. Achieving these three objectives from the essay needn't take that long, and in the exam you'll want to move on to the textual analysis (the good stuff) as soon as possible - it can just be three sentences.