Agenda

• Writing Introductions
• The Rhetorical Précis (handout) ( Word | PDF )
• Audience Analysis (if we have time! We don’t want to disregard this aspect of our writing, but we can fold this consideration in as we explore this assignment in the coming classes).

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First things…

DISCUSSION PAGE: Please post the introductory paragraph ONLY you worked on for today on this discussion page. Please do not list your sources on this page. We just want to look at some first drafts of introductions.

We will (hopefully!) return to this page to give each other feedback – AFTER we take a closer look at introductions.

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Writing Introductions

Let’s look at some tips on writing introductions to our essay, and look at a model introduction. (Source: https://libguides.astate.edu/papers/introparagraph)

Writing the introductory paragraph can be a frustrating and slow process — but it doesn’t have to be.  Once your is planned out, then most of the introductory paragraph is already written.  Now you just need a beginning…(we will get to endings later on!)

1. BEGINNING SENTENCE/S: Here’s your chance to introduce your topic and grab your reader’s attention.  It is often said “NEVER start your paper saying, “In this paper, I will” or “This paper is about.” This is somewhat negotiable. You CAN say “I” in your introduction – or anywhere in your paper – but the advice here is to not LITERALLY START your paper with the word “I”. But you should endeavor to start strong.  For example, in your research, have you come across an odd factoid or interesting quote? Try starting your paper with that.  How about starting with an anecdotal story or humor?
2. MIDDLE SENTENCES: The middle sentences cover the different points in your paper.  If you’ve already planned which order to write the points in the paper, you already know which order to place them in your introductory paragraph. (Hint: it’s the same order).  You don’t have to include every single point, but make sure the important ones get in there.
3. ENDING SENTENCES: All the previous sentences have been building up to this: your thesis. Your thesis statement expresses the overall idea of your paper and show where you stand on the topic.  Here is another handout for writing thesis statements.

A MODEL INTRODUCTION

Use this model to look at what the text is DOING. Use this model as inspiration and guidance. Remember, you need not follow any model exactly, but this model that I did find I think shows clearly how you can construct a solid and focused opening paragraph.

Sentence breakdown

1st Sentence	A quick factoid about comics.
2nd & 3rd	These sentences define graphic novels and gives a brief history. This is also how the body of the paper starts.
4rd Sentence	This sentence introduces the current issue. See how it gives the history first and now give the current issue? That’s flow.
5th Sentence	Since this paper is pro-graphic novels, it gave the opposing (con) side first. Remember if you’re picking a side, you give the other side first and then your side.
6th Sentence	Here is the move to the pro-graphic novel argument.
7th Sentence	This further expands the pro-graphic novel argument.
8th Sentence	This is the thesis statement.

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Looking ahead to our research paper –

As we build and write our research papers, we will need to introduce some of the texts we have read so that we may put them in the context of our research essay. Introducing them means we need to give our reader some idea of what the texts are about. Sometimes we may choose to provide a summary (as we did in our Rhetorical Analysis Essay) OR, we can rely on a briefer – and more focused – overview. “The Rhetorical Précis” is a tool/template/format that helps us introduce a particular text before proceeding with our essay.