Introductions
SHRINKING THE HORIZON!
Just like the horizon, the things that you can say about a text are limitless. There’s always something new to discover; there’s always a new lens to interpret the text through.
The purpose of the introduction is to limit and shrink that horizon. It deletes everything that’s not necessary and gives you a tool to help judge whether or not something belongs in your essay or not.
Introduction Musts!
State the text type, title and author of the text, and summarise your text in relation to your topic.
Outline your methodology and define keywords if necessary.
Write a thesis statement that encompasses all of the key points of your essay.
Click the images below to learn more about these requirements,
Introducing The Text/Texts
This requires you to explicitly state the author, title and text type of the text. By text type, we are referring to the kind of text that we're analysing: Is it a novel, poem, short story or play? Or, is it an Op-Ed, movie, advertisement or cartoon?
Once we have done this, we need to briefly summarise the text according to the topic of our study. For instance, if we were analysing The Reluctant Fundamentalist according to a socio-historic lens, we might say that 'it's the story of a young Pakistani man who is met with suspicion and struggles to find his place in America as a result of the change in culture post 9/11. However, if we were analysing this text according to a feminist lens, we might say that the story explores the complicated relationship between a young, ambitious man, Changes, and the grief-stricken girl, Erica, with whom he falls in love.
Setting Up Your Methodology
Your interpretation of a text will alter depending on the type of analysis that you do. For instance, if you are analysing a text using a feminist lens, your interpretation is going to include conclusions about the ways that a text represents and constructs gender; however, if you are analysing a text by conducting socio-historical criticism, you're going to arrive conclusions about the ways in which the text reflects the context in which it was produced.
So that your your reader can follow your line of analysis, you need to let them know what kind of analysis you are conducting. What's more, you need to define any of the key concepts that you are applying in your analysis to avoid any confusion. Some concepts are understood differently by different people, so defining the ways in which you are using the them will avoid confusion whilst holding you accountable to consistently focusing on particular ideas.
Your Thesis Statement
Your thesis statement is the most important part of your essay. It directly answers the question or prompt that has been asked of you, and it encapsulates all of the ideas that will covered in the rest of your essay.
In order to have a strong thesis statement, you need to make sure that it meets the following criteria:
Answers the essay prompt by indicating your line of analysis (Level 3).
Includes a statement and method/reason.
Is written in concise, direct language.
Can be understood without any support.
Has enough scope to be developed into supporting arguments.
Avoids vague statements that can be said about any text.