4.9

1. 4.9 Introductions Student examples Ba8 Workshop

2. introductions • What is the purpose of an introduction? • What makes for a good introduction?

3. Purpose of an introduction • First impression. • Lays out a roadmap for the rest of your paper. • Ideally, your introduction should make the reader want to read the rest of your paper.

4. Less effective kinds of introductions • Place holder introduction: • This introduction is common when you don’t have much to say on the subject. It contains a few vague sentences and doesn’t really say much. It only really functions to take up the ‘introduction space’ in the draft. • The summary introduction: • This introduction attempts to give context in the form of summary, oftentimes focusing on tiny details that don’t have much to do with the overall RA. • The ‘dawn of man’ introduction: • This one makes broad, sweeping statements about the topic “since the dawn of time,” etc. This is very cliché. • The bare bones introduction: • This one gives only audience, purpose, and thesis, occasionally confined to one sentence.

5. More effective introductions • Open with: • A quotation • An anecdote • A question • A strong opinion • A fact • Just make sure it’s relevant.

6. Parts of the effective introduction • Context • Publication info/author bio • Correct statement of audience • Correct statement of purpose • Clear, easy-to-find thesis • Evaluative statement • Rhetorical choices • “persuades” over tell/shows/informs/discusses/ect.

7. Student examples

8. BA8 • In this assignment you will attempt a revision of your introduction to draft 1.1. Keep in mind that your original introduction may remain the better of your two efforts. • Revise your introduction and write a short analysis of the revisions you made. Identify and explain what you revised and why and explain why those revisions will influence the reader. • Be sure to include a sentence or three about which introduction you feel is better and why (It’s perfectly normal to feel that your original is still better).

9. A tip… • If you gave me your introduction a few weeks ago, you have an email with my commentary. Use it! ESPECIALLY if you’ve gotten conflicting commentary. • “Though my grader thought I should focus on one aspect of my audience, I have met with my instructor, and he approved my audience of _____ as long as I take the measures to connect back to each group.”

10. What we’ll be looking for • You need to analyze the quality of your introductions. Your introductions should also convey that you understand the purpose of an intro. • Does your revised introduction show noticeable improvement? You need to support your critique with specific examples from your introduction. • Authority (again) • You need to provide an overall evaluative statement of the effectiveness of your revisions and discuss the significance of the revisions made. • Style, tone, grammar, etc.

11. Your turn • Now, swap introductions with the person next to you. Do you see all the elements we’ve discussed in the intro? Do you see elements that don’t need to be there? Discuss.

12. For next class • Bring the body paragraph you feel needs the most work.