College Composition / Unit 19 CMP 0455 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Building an Introduction
The idea
An introduction can be built in a reliable sequence: engage, orient, then state the thesis.
In practice
Build it in order. First, open with a hook suited to the genre: a conflict, a specific fact, a quotation, a question or a brief anecdote. Second, orient the reader by answering the journalist's questions about the topic that the reader needs: who, what, when, where, why and how. Third, give only the background the thesis depends on. Fourth, move toward the thesis with a sentence that narrows from the context to the specific issue. Fifth, state the thesis, usually as the introduction's last sentence. In the Handbook's example, an anecdote about an older woman who cannot get into a salon without a cell phone leads to a thesis about seniors being left behind by technology.
Where people slip
Each part should be short. An introduction that spends most of its length on the hook or the background delays the thesis and tires readers before the argument begins.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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