Introductions & Openings

Introduction or openings are usually the most challenging part of writing anything. In your essays, you need to develop some kind of hook and then get to your thesis in an interesting and compelling way. Since introductions are at the beginning of any written piece, most people think that is where they have to begin writing, which is not true at all. Why put the pressure on yourself to try to craft a truly interesting opening wihtout completely knowing yet what you will be addressing exactly? However, you have to craft one sooner or later, so here is some thoughts as you begin. A lot of this material is adapted from a book called Spunk & Bite, which has some of the best explanation and ideas on openings I have ever found.

Ideally, every opening should be a promise to the reader. It should implicitly say, “I promise that something will interest you if you keep reading.” But how do you anticipate what will interest a reader, real or imagined? This is where notions of writing for an audience come into play. If you know who the audience it is a whole lot easier. If you are not sure what should you do?

Here are some types of promises. The trick is to use them boldly.

Symbolism: small detail with grander meanings
Understatement: less that implies much more
Contrast: tension between multiple elements
Foreboding: hints of trouble ahead
Force: Sensual image and powerful verbs
Intimacy: establish a close, personal connection with reader

Make sure that the type of promise you choose sets the tone and the direction of the piece. The promise you choose helps you develop what people often refer to as a hook.

Once you have decided on the kind of promise you still need to find a way to get the writing started. Here are six specific techniques:

• someone’s remark, quotation
• an intriguing or amusing question
• a striking or startling statement
• a description or stage setting
• use of storytelling, narrative
• one line attention getter, “capsule”

Try to strike quickly. However you choose to open your writing do it with boldness and fearlessness. Take risks in your efforts. Sometimes you will fall. Yet, sometimes the best way to learn what works is to learn what doesn’t work, especially with different forms of writing, because the variables of the pieces you are writing are always changing.

Below is a short, developing example from a research paper project. It is modified some fromt he original and not the necessarily the greatest example of an introduction ever seen, but it is a good one. It gets the job done and uses the ideas above.

How does an upper-class European gentleman write an in-depth story about sailing the South Seas? Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scottish author, wrote the novel The Ebb Tide about a new ship hand, named Herrick. It is his first time being on the ocean, and he is experiencing all the hardships of sailing. Herrick is always given the harder jobs and is generally dismissed by the experienced ship hands as a greenhorn. Upon the death of Stevenson’s father, Stevenson too set off on a seafaring adventure, an uncommon thing for a wealthy gentleman of the day. Stevenson was an author keenly interested in adventure and horror. Writing at the end of the nineteenth century, all of his pieces were produced at the end of his life. Interestingly, it because he only lived to be a mere thirty-four years old. Through The Ebb Tide, Stevenson crafts a story of excitement and adventure in an effort to recapture his real-life escape from the grief and sorrow he experienced after the loss of his beloved father. 

Keep in mind, the most important aspect of any introduction or opening is sincerity. Sincerity is a synonym for the word truth. People are always interested in the truth. The truth is inherently stimulating and compelling. So that is what you always need to pursue, the truth. Good thesis statements always have the ring of truth. By truth I mean that which is real and sincere, undeniable. It may even be the first thing that interested you about the subject on which you are writing. That which is sincere and real rings true with everyone, because everyone has a connection to truth. This may seem a little abstract and hard to understand, which is what makes this element of writing so challenging.

Lastly, in the beginning of the writing process, it is always best to just slap something down and get writing. As mentioned previously, you don’t have to start writing the introduction first. Even when writing an introduction, it may not all drop out of your head and onto the page in any kind of logical order. Just try to capture it all, as much as possible. Writing can be challenging enough without the added obstacle of forcing yourself to tackle the most difficult part immediately. Ultimately, what you will find is that the strength of your developing commentary and analysis and shape it begins to take will be the biggest factors in the quality of both your thesis and opening.

Research Project 06: Beginning to Draft

At this point, you have created 3-5 categories or big ideas that give some basic structure to your research. Then you subdivided each category into multiple direct connections between the author’s life and novel, based on links in your evidence between the note cards and triple entry journal. Each category should have 3-8+ associated connections, which will guide your paragraph development. Essentially, you will be drafting one paragraph per connection, although this is not a hard and fast rule.

Using the resource that you were given on Building a Full Body Paragraph and combining those ideas with your preliminary outline rendered a basic, conceptual framework for composing fully developed body paragraphs for your research paper. You are now ready to start drafting and adding commentary and analysis to the mix. The framework provides a flexible way to guide your drafting. Thus, each paragraph begins to take on a structure that looks very similar to this:

Category

1. Identify and establish the connection to be examined (topic sentence)
2. Explain the connection generally (why is connection important?)
3. Introduce and provide evidence that supports the connection (note card/journal match)
4. Explain the evidence (significance of the evidence)
5. Identify and explain relationship between evidence and connection (inter-textual connection)
6. Explain the connection more concretely or specifically (add detail)
7. Relate connection to the overall thesis of the piece (relate to focus)

Keep in mind the points above do not equal the number of sentences in the paragraph. You may have one sentence for an individual point or four; it all depends on the material you are addressing.

Also this is intended to be a guide or framework designed to help you. It has all of the essential elements that, if addressed thoroughly, will assist you in developing much deeper and richly developed body paragraphs for your research paper. It is meant to be flexible, not a set of sequential rules. The samples should help illustrate this.

Below are three samples of class generated paragraphs to use as models. The first is the simplest and most direct, following the guideline most closely in a nearly one-to-one fashion. This particular paragraph deals with the connections between author Sandra Cisneros and her novel House on Mango Street.

Category: Pre-life & Childhood

Connection: Class Setting

Both Cisneros and the main character, Esperanza, were born in similar situations¹. Their roots are in urban America; however they are of Mexican descent². Correspondingly, each were born and raised in a poor Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago (B5/6)³. The urban setting of where each lives influences who they are culturally⁴. Both families choose to live in an area where Spanish mainly spoken⁵. The neighborhoods resemble and represent the homeland⁵. Yet, growing up in a poor, working class area motivates each to pursue a better life with broader ethnicity and opportunity⁶. * Add a sentence that links to thesis⁷.

The second sample is more elaborate and deals with each piece of evidence individually, explaining it a little, circling back to the next piece of evidence, repeating the process, before consolidating additional explanation of both pieces of evidence. This particular paragraph deals with the connections between author Julia Alvarez and her novel How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents.

Category: Immigration and American Childhood

Connection: Differences between real and imagined America

Alvarez and the narrators, each of the Garcia Girls, both come from families that fled the Dominican Republic for political reasons¹. Each had unrealistic expectations of what they believed the United States to be². In her article about the author Sonia Benson states, “Instead of feeling like home, the Bronx alienated Alvarez” (B4)³. The culture shock of moving to a new country, with a new language, and different customs made life difficult⁴. Moreover, Alvarez left her upper-class Dominican life for a lower, working class American one⁴. In the novel, the family experiences the same conditions⁴. The Garcia girls do not like America⁴. It is not at all what they expected⁴. Yet, one narrator-sister, explains that after a few years, the family eventually adjusted to the new environment (6)³. Still, the girls thought life in the States would be superior in nearly every way compared to their underdeveloped island experience⁴. Both experiences, between author and narrator, are identical⁵. They struggle significantly with the disappointments and acceptance of a reality that leaves them living poor in a lower-class section of America’s largest city⁶. * Add a sentence that links to thesis⁷.

The third sample is contains greater depth and detail of analysis and deals with both pieces of evidence at once, then explaining and exploring the connection. This particular paragraph deals with the connections between author Alice Walker and her novel Meridian.

Category: Personal Life Experiences

Connection: Alice Walker’s abortion linked to character suicide

Both Walker and the character Wild Child experience unwanted pregnancies in their late teens that have tragic consequences¹. Although the consequences are different, both women consider the same options and both circumstances end with death². While in college Alice walker traveled to Africa, when she returned she discovered that she was pregnant and slowly began to contemplate suicide³. Ultimately, she decided to get an abortion instead (A12)³. Similarly in the novel, Wild Child shares her experience of an unwanted pregnancy with the main character, Meridian³. Shortly thereafter, Wild Child, in an effort to avoid the burden, jumps in front of a car, killing herself and her unborn child (80-89)³. Wild Child commits suicide because she does not want to have the baby⁴. She is young and feels as though she cannot handle the responsibility⁴. By killing both herself and the baby, in her mind, she avoids creating two miserable lives⁴. She does not want experience the guilt associated with abortion⁴. Although the character opts for suicide in the story, Walker aborted the pregnancy⁵. Having suffered from guilt and depression, she was inspired to express her grief through killing Wild Child⁶. By killing the character, Walker appears to be eliminating the wild child part of her own life⁶. * Add a sentence that links to thesis⁷.

One small but significant item to note in each of the sample paragraphs is the changing verb tense. Notice that when addressing the author’s life, experiences that happened in their past, essentially history, past tense is used. Conversely, when addressing the novel, which is literature, present tense is used. So, the tense you need to use switches between past and present. However, when addressing both the author and the novel, at the same time, you will maintain the present tense. My suggestion is that you just write and not worry as much about this until you get to the editing process. Then you can comb through the document, sentence by sentence, and make sure that these mechanics are in order. This will keep your writing momentum moving forward, without finer mechanical issues slowing down your progress.

Research Project 05: Organizing the Evidence

Once you have a significant collection of evidence you must set about sorting through your note cards. This will give you an early sense of what kind of material you have gathered, exposing the quality of your sources.

As you sort through your note cards and create piles of similar cards, you are beginning to establish clear categories for your information. Essentially, the pile of similar cards is a category, which you then label with a keyword or two. Create 3-5 piles or categories of cards. There is any number of ways to organize your categories. Here are some viable types of organization.

• Phases of Life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood)
• Influences (family, education, work)
• Life Themes and/or Text Topics (relocations, feminism, identity)
• Significant Life Events (deaths, divorce, war)
• Chronological (first, second, third)

Once you have sorted the cards, you may discover that it you have a lot of data and cards that are suddenly looking not looking terribly useful. You may discover that you have a whole lot more data in one area than another. You may even discover that you need to go back to the library and find some more information in one area, because you do not have enough for what you need to begin writing.

Next, number each entry in your triple entry journal, for tracking purposes.

Now you are ready to begin finding the links between the note cards of your biographical research and the relationships that you began to identify in your triple entry journal, matching your evidence. These new combinations between the note cards and the triple entry journals may alter your earlier categorizations, this is to be expected as your data and ideas begin to take shape. Tag each entry in the triple entry journal with the corresponding note card(s). For every match you have made a direct connection between the author’s life and or experience and their work, the novel that you selected and read. There may be a lot of cards left without journal matches, just place them to the side but do not lose them. Those are cards that may be very helpful in crafting part of your introduction or conclusion, later. Here is an illustration of the process:

At this point, you are basically solving a large data accounting problem.

Once you have matched all the evidence between the cards and the journal you are ready to begin writing a preliminary outline for the body of what will become your paper. Your focus in developing the outline is compiling the matched evidence, labeling the connection with keyword(s), and then organizing everything by category into a cohesive whole. On a generic level, your outline structure will look something like this:

II. Body
     A. Category
          1. Connection
               a. Corresponding Note Card
               b. Corresponding Triple Entry Journal Entry
          2. Connection
               a. Corresponding Note Card
               b. Corresponding Triple Entry Journal Entry

A practical example would look more like this:

II. Body
     A. Family and Background
          1. Brian (character in novel) based on James (brother in life)
               a. Brother James (note card A5)
               b. Character Brian’s first appearance (entry 5)
          2. Absent father
               a. Father William (life) always traveling for work (A7)
               b. Father Samuel (novel) dies while narrator in teens (12)

Completing the preliminary outline gives you a pretty good map of the shape that your paper is starting to take. It will expose the strengths and weaknesses of your work, highlight areas where you may need supplementary research, and reveal the material that is the most important in helping you address the research question:

How are the author’s life experiences and elements in their fiction connected?