Five Approaches to Stimulating Introductions:
1. Provide Background Information
2. Tell a Pertinent Story
3. Explain why your topic is important
4. Present some interesting images or use description
5. Present an intriguing problem or raise a provacative question
POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT WRITING INTRODUCTIONS
1. Your introduction is important because it forms you reader's first impression.
2. An introduction can
a. Present your topic
b. Arouse interest in your topic
3. The introduction can present your topic in a thesis
a. The thesis need not be the last sentence of the introduction, but it is often convenient to place it there.
b. The thesis presents your topic by stating your subject and your narrowing in specific terms.
c. Both the subject and the narrowing must be restricted
d. For your final draft do not shape a thesis that reads like an announcement
4. You can create interest in your topic in several ways. Five of them are listed above.
5. Your approach to your introduction will, in part, be determined by your audience and purpose.
REMEMBER: Do not write "this essay is about" or anything similar or you will receive an F on your paper!
THE BODY PARAGRAPHS
The body is rthe real core of your essay.
The purpose of the body paragraphs is to present detail that supports, explains, defends, describes, illustrates, or otherwise develops the idea given in your thesis. This is where you present the material to convince your reader that your thesis is valid.
The TOPIC SENTENCE presents the point the body parargraph will deal with. This point will be only one aspect of the thesis.
After the topic sentence comes the SUPPORTING DETAIL. Supporting detail is all of the information that explains, illustrates, defends, describes, supports, or otherwise develops the idea presented in teh topic sentence.
Adequate detail
Put yoruself in your reader's place. You cannot expect a reader to understand and appreciate teh point of view states in your thesis if you do not provide enough convincing support for that view. SHOW your reader RATHER THAN TELL (use examples, details, etc.)
Three ways to organize your details:
1. chronological - what happened first, next, and then last
2. spatial - moves through space in some logical way (top to bottom, outside to inside, etc.)
3. progressive - moves from the most important idea to the least important one
Begin a new paragraph when:
1. you begin writing about something new
2. you have a particularly long paragraph that could be split into two or more smaller ones
3. you want to emphasize a point
4. you want to use an extended example
CONCLUSION
DO NOT BEGIN WITH "IN CONCLUSION"
The conclusion is important because it influences your reader's final impression. There are several ways in which you can handle your conclusion:
1. Leave the reader with an overall reaction
2. Summarize the main points of the essay (save this for very long essays when your reader might NEED a summary)
3. Introduce a related idea
4. Draw a conclusion
5. Restate the thesis or another portion of the introduction (not always the BEST choice...be careful!)
6. Use a combination of approaches
At the end of writing your conclusion, ask yourself the following questions (you should be able to answer "yes" to all of them if your conclusion is effective):
1. Does the conclusion bring my essay to a satisfying close?
2. Is the approach that I chose for the conclusion effective?
3. Is the length of the conclusion appropriate?
4. Does the conclusion leave you with a positive final impression?