Begin with a broad, general statement of your topic and narrow it down to your thesis statement. Broad, general statements ease the reader into your thesis statement by first introducing the topic. In the following example, the writer talks generally about categories of students and then narrows down to comments on a specific type.
Schools divide people into categories. From first grade on up, students are labeled “advanced” or “deprived” or “remedial” or “antisocial.” Students pigeonhole their fellow students, too. We’ve all known the “brain,” the “jock,” the “dummy,” and the “teacher’s pet.” In most cases, these narrow labels are misleading and inaccurate. But there is one label for a certain type of college student that says it all: “zombie.”