Podcast about Introductions- writing center

Hello. I’m Jeff Cook, one of the tutors who works at the writing center in the Center for Access and Transition, and I’m about to give you my suggestions for writing an introduction for a college-level paper. First, get out a piece of paper and a writing instrument. At the top, I want you to write Introduction in big letters. Now you are going to spend a minute writing everything you know about introductions. I’m asking you to do this because this is the way that all learning works. You will understand more of what I say and remember it longer if you do this. The more you do, the more you know, and the longer you remember. This is the way all reading and listening works. If you tried this trick with all your reading assignments, you would be amazed how much more you remember when the test comes around. Ok. So I want you to pause this podcast and write everything you can think of about introductions. I’m going to pause for ten seconds, then I’ll start my explanation. [Pause] Since most of you aren’t finished writing, pause the podcast now and restart it once you are finished. Did you do it? Good. If you didn’t, you are probably wasting your time listening to me talk. People who listen to talks without applying them are like people who go to the gym and don’t work out. While I talk, I want you to take notes on anything that seems unfamiliar or anything that seems really clear. In other words, don’t try to remember everything from this, try to learn something from what I have to say. [Pause] Ok. Now imagine that you are in a public place. Maybe it’s a restaurant. Maybe it’s a shopping mall. Maybe it’s a baseball game or a church service. Now at this place, a stranger walks up to you to start a conversation. Other than whether that stranger is good looking, ask yourself this: what are the things that I want the stranger to do, in order to pull me into that conversation? Well, the stranger would have to get my interest in the subject, give me a little background, and let me know where the conversation was going. It has to be in that order. If the stranger can’t get my interest, I will ignore him. If the stranger gives no background, I’ll be confused. If the stranger gives too much background, I’ll get impatient. Have you ever listened to someone who made no attempt to talk about what interests you? Have you ever listened to a story where someone felt they had to explain WAY too much in order to understand a story? For me, this happens when my girlfriend tells me stories about the people at her work. Suddenly, I need to know someone’s whole dating history to understand a prank involving her car. Have you ever listened to someone talk about something and had no idea why they just told you that? Those situations aren’t fun when you’re face to face with a person. They are even less fun when you are dealing with writing. So English teachers got together in our secret island lair many years ago and created a simple set of ideas that cover how to write introductions. Not everyone of us uses the exact same words to describe the ideas, but the ideas are always the same. An introduction, in its simplest explanation requires three things. A hook. Background information. (and almost always) A Thesis The hook is where the writer grabs the reader’s attention. In the opening few sentences, the writer must convince the reader that the topic is important. There are dozens of techniques for doing this, and we’ll be covering some of them in another podcast. The background information section is where the writer builds context for his/her audience. Knowing what to include and what is unnecessary is an art. Is the paper intended for an audience that knows the subject? Or is the paper intended to introduce the audience to the subject? For example, a narrative about one’s own life will require a lot of background information because few readers directly know what the author’s life is like. However, a paper written about the Cincinnati Bengals will probably find a very knowledgeable audience here in Cincinnati, Ohio. The third part of the introduction is the most important, the thesis statement. The thesis statement is a single sentence that introduces the controlling+ idea of a paper. Finding an appropriate thesis statement is very tricky, and for this reason, it will be covered in its own podcast. Those are the main three concepts that you need in a piece of writing. Those are the same three concepts that a stranger needs to use when starting a conversation. If you notice, these concepts start with something broad, and then they get more and more specific until the paragraph reaches the thesis statement. And that’s all you need to know about introductions. The unfortunate thing is that, you guessed it, knowing is only half the battle. In order to get any use out of this information, you will have to apply it to something. Take the piece of paper with your notes on it, and turn it over. Imagine that you have been asked to write a persuasive paper about a topic of your choice. Spend a few minutes and ask yourself how you would write the three main sections of the introduction. Ask yourself, how am I going to interest the reader in my subject? Ask yourself, what does the reader need to know about my subject in order to understand the basics? Ask yourself, what do I want to convince the reader of? I’m not suggesting you write an introduction right now. What I am saying is that you need to immediately use this information in order to remember it. So simply write down an answer to those three questions. The topic can be anything you want. Ask yourself, how am I going to interest the reader in my subject? Ask yourself, what does the reader need to know about my subject in order to understand the basics? Ask yourself, what do I want to convince the reader of? I’ll wait. [Pause] Have you got your answers written down or in your head? If so, you have just done the hardest part of writing an introduction. Review what you wrote down before this podcast and see if your understanding of introductions has changed at all during these few minutes. If you need more practice, try examining old papers of your own to see what has gone wrong with your introductions. There are also additional resources and examples in this folder for those of you who want them. You only get better at things that you practice. So, once you practice this, the introductions to your papers will be more entertaining, more informative, and more convincing. And, oh yeah, Your teachers will love you for it.