Introductions

Introductions are essentially orienting devices. Much like compasses and maps, they help a writer and her reader strike out a pathway through a wilderness of claims and positions that constitute the vast territory of what has been and what possibly could be said about an object of study. So vital are they starting readers off on the right foot that although you may have sketched out a placeholder introduction before you began drafting the body of your paper, you should attend to the introduction after you have completed your argument or analysis, when you know exactly what to prepare your reader to encounter. If you don’t compose the introduction last, it is likely that it won’t coordinate with your argument as precisely as it should.  Introductions in academic writing are largely conventional.  They are composed of nearly formulaic parts so that a reader can be eased into the analysis that follows. Most readers take some comfort in having their expectations met as the introduction’s parts unfold predictably.

Though introductions are sometimes talked about us “introductory paragraphs,” it’s best to conceive of the introduction as a “section” composed of the paper’s title, a prelude, and one or two paragraphs of text.  Sometimes, when needed, introductions stretch across three or more paragraphs, but these are exceptional cases.  Most times, they end more quickly. There are five parts to an introductory section: title, prelude, shared context, problem, and solution.

As stated, the introductory section of your paper should be designed to pique your readers’ interests and to provide the context or backstory for the occasion of your making a particular argument. It typically offers preliminary information, but it also situates your argument within an ongoing conversation or debate about how best to approach an issue under consideration. It should be fashioned as an succinct but revealing description of a matter that deserves readers’ attentions and considerations. Your job in composing the introduction is to bring the reader into the sphere of interest that you already inhabit, to invite the reader to join you in your inquiry.

title 

The introductory section begins with the title of your paper, which offers readers a first sign of the paper’s focus. Generic titles that repeat the assignment’s main task, or simply restate the paper’s subject area won’t bring readers on board. In fact, they’ll interpret this as a sign of inattention or laxity and may well mount two strikes against you before they even begin reading the argument itself. Crisp, smart titles offer the gist of the argument in fresh language, or give a taste of the focus of the analysis that follows, or sometimes make a quip, offering a terse, pithy phrase to draw the reader in. Many titles in academic writing include a title and a subtitle, a general statement followed by a colon and then a subtitle that specifies the approach taken or method deployed in the argument (for instance, “The Perils of Courageous Speech: Frederick Douglass’s Fifth of July Oration as Parrhesiastic Discourse,” or “Ahab and His Pleasant Demons: Homoeroticism in Melville’s Moby Dick”).

prelude

A prelude follows the title, sometimes fashioned as the first one or two sentences of the introduction. The prelude is akin to an appetizer at dinner. Essentially, it whets the palate, offering a quick bite before the entreé arrives. Like other appetizers, it’s tasty and small-plated. A prelude might be a telling or troubling statistic, a real or hypothetical story about someone or something , or a mini-narrative relevant to the argument that follows, often fashioned as a “Picture this:______” story (called an enargeia in Classical rhetoric). A prelude can also take the form of an epigraphy (literally meaning “above the text”), a “quotable quote” pertinent to the subject of the paper, sometimes taken from one of the texts that will be made use of in the argument to follow. 

shared context 

The shared context is a collection of sentences (sometimes its own paragraph) that describes a state of affairs, belief, interpretation, or other idea that “we can all agree upon.” This might include a description of the way the phenomenon under consideration has typically or commonly been understood. It is designed to comfort your reader at the star, to get the reader “on the same page,” to bring to the reader to say to herself “I am with you so far.” So, it doesn’t disrupt the common view, doesn’t ask readers to change their minds, doesn’t enumerate disagreements about the subject under study. Instead, when you begin with something you and your readers can agree upon, you establish a degree of trust and mutual regard. When you begin with something like “Perhaps we can agree that. .  .”, you are enhancing your ethos as a writer who cares about establishing a bond with a reader. In the wings, behind the curtain of this equilibrium, a “however” or “but” or “on the other hand” awaits its entrance center stage.  There is an insufficiency in this common view of things that you will soon reveal as you articulate a problem to be reckoned with.

problem

Here, you break the surface calm and disturb the peaceful waters of a shared way of thinking: “However, this interpretation fails to consider X,” “But this analysis depends upon applying an out-moded methodology,” or “Unfortunately, there is no historical data to support this approach.” You break from the pack and identify a flaw, inaccuracy, hasty interpretation, or unfair characterization that if left uncorrected will create troublesome consequences and costs: “If we continue to solicit narratives of sexual abuse in this standard fashion, women will suffer a second trauma by having their stories misrepresented,” “When we characterize incarceration as pure punishment, we rob prisoners of the right to recreate themselves as functioning adults,” “Unreasonable voting restrictions will mean nearly total disenfranchisment for vast number of Native Americans, who already experience regular political dismissals.” When possible, naming the costs and consequences of a problematic policy or dubious way of thinking will add persuasive weight to your introduction. 

solution

This final portion of the introduction sketches out your fresh approach to the problem you’ve identified by unveiling your argument’s central claim. How do you recommend that we approach the matter better or differently? What interpretation or analysis do you offer to solve a dilemma or bridge a divide you’ve identified? What new light do you bring to illuminate an area that has lingered in shadow? How do you recommend we go between the  horns of a hardened dilemma? What cognitive resources can you marshal to address an intransigent or sticky problem? LIkely, your solution will be a contestable one. A reasonable person may choose to disagree with your approach, recommendation, or idea. But for now, you place it on the table, showcase its shiny new parts, and in the rest of your argument, take your reader for a test drive and hope that it performs well as it encounters likely bumps along the road. Your solution to a problem may challenge a reader’s assumptions about a matter they think they already understand well, or ask them to suspend one kind of judgment in favor of a new way of thinking. Your central claim may seem to readers a refreshing and insightful alternative–just the thing we need to dissolve a lingering problem.