Introduction

Introductions

Welcome! Bienvenue! Willkommen! Benvenuto!

Introductions are, of course, more than greetings, and yet both do the same function in some sense: they provide orientation for the guest (reader). Likewise, an Introduction paragraph is not only an Introduction to your essay, but allows you to introduce your reader to the authors you use (the thesis is the handshake, see Thesis Statements).

General Structure for Introductory Paragraphs:

Start with a TOPIC (Notre Dame's squirrel community)

Next narrow down to a specific ISSUE about that topic (Squirrels on

campus are bold).

Next narrow down to QUESTIONS that this issue raises (Will squirrels

eventually take over the campus, leading to anarchy and a new world

order?)

Provide an ANSWER to that question: this is the point that you are

arguing.

In this answer you develop your THESIS. You've now reached the end of

the Introduction.

In other words:

1.) Begin with a general introduction to the topic. This should be broad, but not so broad it has no meaning:

We all think ... (or "Since the dawn of time" or "Man has always...")

These statements are far too broad and potentially untrue

Every day, Americans see an amazing amount of advertising, whether commercials, billboards, or print ads.

(Better. Now we know that you’re going to talk about advertising and

Americans. Of course, if you intended to talk about goldfish and

Eskimos, this isn’t a great start.)

2.) Introduce each of your authors. To introduce an author, you must have:

Her full name (ie: Mary Louise Pratt. When you later refer to the author or a person, you can address them by their last name: don't refer to Michael Jordan as "Mike" or Brad Pitt as "Brad")
The full title of her essay/article
A brief explanation of the focus of that article (this lets your reader understand why you’re talking about it at all).

This will probably take you at least two sentences per source. Do not use examples or quotations at this point; you should be explaining the author’s main point in your own words. As you move from one author to the next, you should indicate very clearly and specifically how they are conneced to one another.

This idea that television is affecting our morals comes up again in Carl Matheson’s essay, “Hyper-Irony, The Simpsons, and the Meaning of Life.”

3.) After you have introduced each of your authors with transitions and connections between them, move to your thesis. You may be able to do this directly, going from your last summary straight into your thesis, or you may need another sentence or two to bridge the gap and explain your line of logic.

Visualize: The Hour-Glass

Think of your essay as an hour-glass. At the beginning of your Introduction you start with a general observation/attention-getter. Increasingly, you get more and more specific, so that your thesis, and the body paragraphs are specific, narrow. Then you start to get broader again, as you conclude your essay and consider the implications of your argument and the impact it would have upon the bigger picture.