Thesis
Tips for Writing an Introduction to an Analytical Essay
The most important goals of an introduction are to interest your target audience, provide any necessary background information, and state your thesis. Generally, the thesis appears at the end of the introduction. Here are some tips for accomplishing the other two goals.
Interest your target audience. Consider using these methods: o Challenge a prevailing idea.
• All too often, American culture is reduced to a sum of white European cultures. This oversimplification brutally denies the shaping of American culture, even European-American culture, by many non-European groups, most notably the African diaspora. The foods, language, and music of America would be fundamentally different without its influence.
• We often associate mutations with disfiguring diseases and mental and physical disabilities. Yet, mutations are extremely important to evolution. Mutations fuel the process of evolution by providing essential variation that natural selection can act on.
o Relate a story that is relevant to your thesis.
• Yangyang is an active and bright 10-year old boy living in Sheyang, a suburban city in China. He has always been at the top of his class, but from age two, his parents noticed that he exhibited some odd mannerisms and unexplainable behaviors. (From a paper analyzing the treatment of autism in China.)
o Provide examples to show the significance of what you’re analyzing.
• “Who am I?” is a question so profoundly simple that many never seriously attempt to answer it or even ask it in the first place. Yet questions of identity are thrust before everyone on a daily basis: does one choose the “men’s” or “women’s” bathroom, which “race” does one choose on a college application, and how does one explains Multiple Personality Disorder. These are all issues of identity with serious emotional and psychological consequences. o Use an interesting or striking quote that is relevant to your thesis.
The most important goals of an introduction are to interest your target audience, provide any necessary background information, and state your thesis. Generally, the thesis appears at the end of the introduction. Here are some tips for accomplishing the other two goals.
Interest your target audience. Consider using these methods: o Challenge a prevailing idea.
• All too often, American culture is reduced to a sum of white European cultures. This oversimplification brutally denies the shaping of American culture, even European-American culture, by many non-European groups, most notably the African diaspora. The foods, language, and music of America would be fundamentally different without its influence.
• We often associate mutations with disfiguring diseases and mental and physical disabilities. Yet, mutations are extremely important to evolution. Mutations fuel the process of evolution by providing essential variation that natural selection can act on.
o Relate a story that is relevant to your thesis.
• Yangyang is an active and bright 10-year old boy living in Sheyang, a suburban city in China. He has always been at the top of his class, but from age two, his parents noticed that he exhibited some odd mannerisms and unexplainable behaviors. (From a paper analyzing the treatment of autism in China.)
o Provide examples to show the significance of what you’re analyzing.
• “Who am I?” is a question so profoundly simple that many never seriously attempt to answer it or even ask it in the first place. Yet questions of identity are thrust before everyone on a daily basis: does one choose the “men’s” or “women’s” bathroom, which “race” does one choose on a college application, and how does one explains Multiple Personality Disorder. These are all issues of identity with serious emotional and psychological consequences. o Use an interesting or striking quote that is relevant to your thesis.