Due Oct 14

Introduction Due

Think of the intro as an effort to sell your essay to the reader. What does it offer that a typical reader might find valuable?

The first sentences of an essay should grab the reader. Sometimes authors will try to grab our attention with a joke, but generally the goal is to (1) specify the essay’s topic and (2) make clear why that topic should be of interest to us. A good option is to begin by introducing the ad you’re writing about. In considering what to say, think about what makes this ad unusual and therefore intriguing—or alternatively what makes it typical and therefore indicative of a broader trend.

Having introduced your essay's topic, the second half of the intro should focus our attention on what you want to argue about that topic—your thesis. But before you tell us your core insight, you may want to prep us with some preliminary understanding of the topic—what your essay is adopting as its starting point. This is sometimes called the "counter-thesis," in the sense that it is what you're arguing against in arguing your thesis claim. It will turn out to be incomplete, partial, preliminary, but the preliminary understanding thinks it is a full and complete explanation for the essay's topic.

In any event, the last sentences of a good intro should voice the essay’s main claim or thesis. Wording is crucial: a good thesis will immediately intrigue the reader by striking us as (1) not obviously true and (2) having significant implications for a topic that we care about. A strong preliminary understanding will help establish the first of these; a strong initial characterization of your topic will help establish the second. But everything depends on the wording of the thesis in making strike the reader as intriguing, compelling, perhaps even paradoxical.

For Class Write an introduction to the essay you’re planning and turn it in by pasting it into the comments.