Introductions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.      Explain the problem or issue.

2.      Open with a question which you will develop in the next paragraph (Note: it should be a theoretical question that cannot be answered in 1 or 2 short statements, not “have you ever thought about…?”)

3.      Use a passage from a critic to illustrate the potential for misunderstanding.         

4.      Use a passage from the text to illustrate the problem or issue.

 

 


 

                                                                                                                            Sample Introductions:

 

Text Box: Note that in the 1st sentence the author and the text are introduced, as well as the central focus of the essay: the three dead soldiers.   The 2nd sentence complicates the image of the soldiers by adding the second idea of the barrier between the living and the dead, and the third idea of imposing Christ.   The 3rd and final sentence of the intro is the thesis, which reveals that the essay will argue that the soldiers represent alienation, confusion, and spiritual depravity of war.

 

[1] Walt Whitman’s “A Sight in Camp in the Day-Break Grey and Dim” features the bodies of three dead soldiers, as seen through the eyes of another soldier. [2] His meditation on the bodies reveals a barrier between the living and the dead that the speaker tries to overcome, as well as imposing Christ onto the face of one of the soldiers. [3] Through the bodies and Christ, Whitman reveals the inherent alienation, confusion, and spiritual depravity that war entails.

 

Text Box: The 1st sentence introduces the two texts and their authors, as well as the specific “sign” (resistance of marriage plot) the essay will discuss.   The 2nd sentence narrows this broad topic by mentioning which characters the essay will discuss and how they resist the marriage plot.   The 3rd sentence introduces literary criticism to help set the stage for the argument.     Sentences 4 – 8 slowly build an argument by bringing in several points and factors which need to be laid out before the thesis can argue anything.           In sentence 10, the paragraph once again brings the focus back to the characters and the problem they faced in the texts.   Finally, the thesis takes the characters’ struggles and makes an argument/claim: that the characters can only restructure the marriage plot, not evade it.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 [1] The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells feature characters that resist the traditional marriage plot. [2] Isabel Archer and Tom Corey, respectively, consciously defy the assumptions of society through their choice of spouse. [3] In Tradition/Counter Tradition, Joseph Allen Boone refers to this defiance as “counter-narrative: the persistent ‘undoing’ of the dominant tradition by the contradictions concealed within the specific forms that its representations of ‘life’ and ‘love’ have assumed” (2). [4] Thus, hidden within these two texts are the keys to undoing the conventions that many characters assume to be immutable. [5] Also, the fact that such resistance occurs during discourse on love and marriage is essential to understanding the risks involved in changing these conventions. [6] At the heart of each society is the family, which is the smallest unit of people. [7] If changes occur within the family, then changes will occur in the larger society. [8] Conventionally, marriage is the foundation from which the family builds. [9] So society has a large stake in the marriages of its members. [10] Tom Corey and Isabel Archer do their best to both question and evade this marriage plot in which society traps them. [11] However, by the end of the novel total evasion of the marriage plot becomes impossible; Isabel and Tom reveal their ability only to restructure the marriage plot according to their own desires.