As every history professor soon discovers, undergraduates often have trouble writing effective openings for their book reviews and research papers. some students hand in essays that begin with anodyne general pronouncements ("throughout history, some things have changed, while others have remained the same"), while others hand in essays without any proper opening at all. This problem is compounded by the fact that many professors have learned to write through a process of trial and error: as a consequence, their grasp of the difference between good and bad writing is largely intuitive, and can be difficult to communicate effectively to students. In this article, the author briefly discusses the five basic types of openings employed by a selection of British historians over the past four hundred years. To judge from these examples, the five basic types of historical openings are: (1) locative; (2) motive; (3) illustrative; (4) argumentative; and (5) reflective. Of these five, the first two types--the locative and motive--are probably the most useful and worthy of emulation by contemporary history students, while the last two types--the argumentative and reflective--are the least. The third type of introduction--the illustrative--can be used with effect, but only if students clearly understand its purpose. Each of these five types of openings has its place, and students should be encouraged to introduce their work in a way that suits their topic and thesis. (Contains 22 notes.)