If someone asked you to write an introductory paragraph on ''Geniusology,'' what would you write?

Well, Tianichka Lavrova, I think you must be the person who was asked to write such an introductory paragraph, and it is evidently designed to test your own ability to craft introductory paragraphs. In that light, it would be unfair of me or of any other Quoran to complete your classroom assignment on your behalf.

If I had been given such an assignment, I might have puzzled over the teacher’s intent. I’m fairly well-read in English, somewhat less so in Esperanto and French, and the word (or its localization) is one I’ve never heard before; it does not appear in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, in Webster’s or in Funk and Wagnall’s. The only online reference I found was to the Urban Dictionary, whose results must be interpreted with caution: “The art of being a genius…. Can be used as a synonym for ‘intelligence’.”

Since the assignment is somewhat vague and since you are only to submit an opening paragraph, your task is somewhat harder than if you had been asked to write a complete essay; and the teacher is perhaps unintentionally inculcating techniques that are harmful to your education. I view it as putting the cart before the horse.

In my formal writing practice, I normally narrow down the broad topic to a particular thesis (essay topic) that can be adequately covered in five or six paragraphs, then complete a formal outline with the major points I intend to make. This outline then informs the composition of the opening and concluding paragraphs.

So it may be helpful to follow this practice in order that you can decide what will be the text of the opening paragraph you’ve been asked to compose. This is unlikely to be wasted work, though, since your teacher will probably ask you next week to finish the essay. Good luck to you.