INTRODUCTION WRITING

INTRODUCTION WRITING Theory Application

Before we start • There is no single way to write introductions! There are many types of essays – argumentative, evaluative etc • So sometimes some techniques are appropriate, sometimes they are not… • Golden Rule: as you read for your course, ask yourself how the introduction has been written. BE AWARE / BE ACTIVE READERS…

Task 1: Analyse all sorts of Intros How does a trailer to a film introduce it? How does Gary Linneker introduce Match of the Day? How do the presenters start the News off?

Task 1 What are the basic ‘ingredients’ of an introduction to an argumentative essay?

THE INTRODUCTION MAY… • ANNOUNCE the topic (Include a topic sentence. What is: the general theme of your essay? The question you will be answering? The hypothesis you will be testing?) (Essential!) • Include a thesis statement where you state the overall ARGUMENT of the essay (ie: your answer/central idea/ assertion about the topic). Where do you stand on the issue? (NB Sometimes…)

An Introduction may… • Signpost the CONTENT (How will you answer the question - whatissues will you discuss; what theories will you use and WHY? To discuss why INTERPRET THE TITLE – what’s this question about then?) • Maybe indicate the STRUCTURE. • Define (NB if necessary) terms/ key words/ concepts in the question

In Brief… What (am I writing about)? Why (am I doing this)? How (will I do it)?

Task: Analyse the following Intro • Are contemporary Spanish women ‘free’? • This essay will discuss an important issue in contemporary Spain: whether Spanish women are free. In order to discuss this, it will first be necessary to define what freedom is. The essay will then proceed by analysing some important issues such as child care and work.

My Reactions • Yes, it announces its topic and structure but… • I find it rather bland, dull, predictable, hackneyed, unimaginative, etc etc. Why? • INTERPRET the title – don’t repeat it • Look at the IMPLICATIONS of the title’s terms • Be PRECISE – define the issues you’ll look at • PROVE it’s important, don’t just say it is • PS I wrote it, not a student!

Recap… What (am I writing about)? Why (am I doing this)? How (will I do it)?

WHAT (am I writing about)? • Include a topic sentence i.e. state what the essay is about (its general subject/ try to the topic down to its central issue) NB Avoid word for word repetitions of the title.

What (am I writing about)? • Topic Sentences: • Simply state THE TOPIC: ‘This essay will consider the representation of men in …’ Or • State THE QUESTION you intend to answer: 'I seek/the essay will seek to answer the question of whether structural adjustment programmes have a negative impact on the 'so-called' Third World countries.'

Why (am I doing it)? Build up to the topic statement: • BrieflyINTERPRET the title/ give it a context: what do you understand by the title? What are its implications? Why discuss this? Why write on this topic? Why is it important? Is it controversial? Why is this a question? – IE How does it fit into the broader theoretical debates of your module/discipline?

Why? Context Warning • Setting the question into a doesn’t mean ‘talk about the topic in general’, but ‘sum up (briefly) the context of THE TITLE’ • (See Harvard for further info on scene setting).

Why (am I doing it)? Emphasise the IMPORTANCE of the topic (why bother writing about this issue?) via: 1. A VERY brief reference to the historical, cultural or social context e.g. is it of current interest? Has it had a great impact socially/culturally? 2. A reference to the reasons for critical interest in it e.g. a BRIEF description of critical wrangling over the issue (what is controversial about this issue? Where do you fit into the debates?)

How (might I do it)? May include a thesis statement i.e. literally state 1. the topic or question addressed in the essay & 2. your answer to the question May mention the theories you will use to conduct your analysis: ‘The essay will argue that Susan Bordo’s (1992, 144) theory of the body as alien is useful to a discussion of the body within the texts of García Lorca…’ (Check with lecturers whether they like thesis statements!)

How (might I do it)? • Mention the specific issues/themes you will consider in the essay. • Outline the structure of the essay (sometimes, but beware tedium…).

An Intro may • Define problematic terms (beware…) • Use an alarming statistic? /a quotation & your comment/ or (more difficult) make a bold statement about the subject

A few Dos • Introduce your essay to somebody else in 1 minute! Then write your intro. • Keep it short and to the point • Be creative! Explain the title. Boring? ‘In my first section…, then I’ll…, then I’ll...' • Ask tutors whether you should include a thesis statement • Ask yourself – have I really responded to each aspect of the title?

A few Don’ts… • Don’t go overboard on contextual/ background/ biographical information – get to the point! • Don’t repeat the essay title – discuss it • Write shopping lists (ie: I will do this, then this, then…, then…) • Only define necessary terms (ie ambiguous, complex terms) and beware dictionary definitions!

Summary • Introduce purpose – topic statement/ thesis statement/ • Set the title into a context: (EG: its historical/social/political/critical/ ethical/legal setting)

Task • Can you spot the structure of the following introduction? • Does it mention its topic? Where? Does it mention its thesis? If so, where? • Does it set the topic into a context? If so, what sort of context?

Task: A Critical Analysis of Progressive Depictions of Gender in Advertising by Reena Mistryhttp://www.theory.org.uk/mistry.htm Since the mid-1990s, advertising has increasingly employed images in which the gender and sexual orientation of the subject(s) are markedly (and purposefully) ambiguous. As an ancillary to this, there are also a growing number of distinctly homosexual images - and these are far removed from depictions of the camp gay employed as the comic relief elsewhere in mainstream media. This essay is concerned with providing a critical analysis as to the potential of such depictions to undermine conventional gender role stereotypes and the norm of heterosexuality that dominate advertising and the media at large. (…)

Intro Technique • What? She does not restate the title, but narrows it down to a key issue. She signals this issue as the question she will be asking in her essay: ‘the potential of such depictions to undermine conventional gender role stereotypes and the norm of heterosexuality’. This is her TOPIC STATEMENT. • It does not contain a thesis statement. • Why? The context is the recent ambiguity of adverts – this has provoked the issue she has identified

Task: Towards The Margins Describing a prostitute or an illegal immigrant as marginal implies no stable or essential relationship to other, supposedly more ‘central’ women. The meaning of the term ‘marginal’, like that of ‘modern’ or ‘traditional’, varies with context. Despite a disturbing tendency in the modern media and elsewhere to represent advancing age in pathological terms or as parasitic on younger taxpayers, for example, a healthy 70 year old surrounded by her extended family is not in any simple sense marginal. On the other hand, some of Spain’s most profoundly isolated individuals are elderly women who live alone and in poverty. This chapter focuses on women who, for a variety of reasons, experience more systematic social exclusion: abused women, gypsies, illegal immigrants, drug users and prostitutes. It concludes with a discussion of one of the least visible of all Spain’s marginalized groups, lesbian women. (From: Brooksbank Jones, Anny (1997), Women in Contemporary Spain, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 95).

Final Task • Introduce your essay to somebody else in 1 minute • Maybe: 1. Explain the topic/ the essential question you are grappling with or the issues you will be examining • 2. Explain the context of the essay

Further Reading (1) • Pirie, David B. (1985) How to write critical essays a guide for students of literature London: Methuen • Redman, Peter (2001) Good Essay Writing: a Social Sciences Guide, 2nd ed, London: SAGE • For comments on intro technique (it’ll take you 3 minutes to read this site): http://www.mantex.co.uk/books/atoz01.htm

Further Reading (2)Useful on ‘establishing context’ • Harvard Uni’s succinct advice: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Begin.html The info on establishing a context for the title is right at the start – in the ‘Introduce the Essay’ section.

Further Reading (2) • These sites talk you through a potential structure for an introduction: • http://dissc.tees.ac.uk/Writing/paragraphs/page8.htm http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/function/introd.htm http://www.ltn.lv/~markir/essaywriting/intro.htm

Further Reading (3) • Sites which include sample introductions with tutor comments: • http://dissc.tees.ac.uk/Slah/SALH-Excellent.html • http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/english/essayguide/style/moreeffect10a.htm • http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/a319-03.htm

SEMINAR WRITING INTRODUCTIONS TO ACADEMIC ESSAYS

Task 1: Analyse the following introduction: ‘School represses children. Discuss’. Will Woodward states that ‘a classroom is an environment you must fit yourself into rather than one designed with you in mind’1. Commenting in The Guardian on the Design Council report, ‘Fit for Purpose’, Will Woodward highlights a common argument underlying alternative methods of education today which argues that traditional types of schooling are seen as forcing children to conform to society rather than encouraging them to express their individuality.

‘School represses children. Discuss’ (Cont). In the following essay I will focus on how school can be seen as subordinating children’s individual thought to external demands and will look in detail at the interaction between teacher and child. The essay will consider, and critically evaluate, traditional types of schooling, before looking at examples of alternative education systems to determine whether it is in fact possible to design a method of schooling which does not repress children in some way’.

Discuss the 'Fallen Woman' as a Familiar Feature of Victorian Writinghttp://dissc.tees.ac.uk/Slah/SALH-Excellent.html • Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton may be characterised as a 'social problem' novel. Basch (1974: 263) states, 'Mrs Gaskell's impure women came from ... the work and exploitation which she knew, relatively speaking, better than other novelists.' Gaskell was the wife of a Unitarian clergyman in Manchester. She devoted her time to setting up homes for fallen women, and after Mary Barton women became her central characters, her novels primarily seen through women's eyes.

Fallen Woman (cont) • Thomas Hardy, since his career began, has been notably associated with his portrayal of female characters. Erving Howe even writes about 'Hardy's gift for creeping intuitively into the emotional life of women.' (Boumelha 1982: 3) From this point of view, I intend this essay to establish a comparison between Gaskell's 'fallen woman' in Mary Barton and the way in which Thomas Hardy frames his central female character in Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

INTRODUCTION WRITING

INTRODUCTION WRITING

Presentation Transcript

Writing the Introduction

Introduction Professional Writing

Argument Writing Introduction

Writing an Introduction

Writing an Introduction

Technical Writing Introduction

Writing an Introduction

Writing Introduction

Introduction to Writing:

Introduction (Hook writing)

Writing an Introduction

IPP Writing: Introduction

Writing your Introduction

Persuasive Writing: Introduction

Grant Writing Introduction

Writing Your Introduction

Introduction Process writing

Introduction – Writing Fraction

Writing the Introduction

Introduction Writing

Writing an Introduction

Business Writing: Introduction