Transcript Tentative Unit 1 Schedule

Tentative Unit 1 Schedule
 Week 2
 1/20-Using library
databases (bring computer
to class)
 1/22- Intro to Exploratory
Narrative & Source
evaluations
 Week 3
 1/27-Research questions
and results
 Minor Essay 1 Due
 1/29-Strategies for
introductions
 Week 4
 2/3-Reflective writing and
body paragraphs
 2/5- Synthesizing sources
&First Draft peer review
 Week 5
 2/10- Strategies for
conclusions & grammar
 2/12-Editing, peer review,
& unit 1 wrap up
 2/15-Exploratory
Narrative Due
Today’s Goals
 Understand the importance, rhetorically and
psychologically, of introductions
 Examine successful exploratory narrative introduction
strategies
 Brainstorm possible introduction strategies for your
exploratory narrative
Name that introduction!
 “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive,
were proud to say that they were perfectly normal,
thank you very much. They were the last people you’d
expect to be involved in anything strange or
mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such
nonsense.”
Name that introduction!
 “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it
was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter
of despair.”
Name that introduction!
 “My mother drove me to the airport with the windows
rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix,
the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my
favorite shirt—sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was
wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a
parka.”
Name that introduction!
 “There is one mirror in my house. It is behind a sliding
panel in the hallway upstairs. Our faction allows me to
stand in front of it on the second day of every third
month, the day my mother cuts my hair.”
Name that introduction!
 “Call me Ishmael.”
 “When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for
I had lost the path that does not stray.”
 “Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
 “It was a pleasure to burn.”
 “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune,
must be in want of a wife.”
 “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I
was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and
all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like
going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
Introduction Sources
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
A Tale of Two Cities
Twilight
Divergent
Moby Dick
Dante’s Inferno
Richard III
Fahrenheit 451
Pride and Prejudice
The Catcher in the Rye
 What do these introductions have in common?
 How is what is presented in the introduction related to
the rest of the text?
 What strategies do these introductions use to grab
reader attention?
Journal Entry 5
 Focus: First Impressions & Introductions
 Think about an experience you had where someone made a
memorable first impression on you.
 What was so memorable about the experience?
 How did it shape your future interactions with this person?
 Was your initial impression of this person accurate or did it greatly
change over time?
 If possible, think about a memorable introduction you have read
in an essay, book, or other form of writing (or even a movie or TC
show).
 What was so memorable about the introduction?
 What kind of strategy did it use to grab reader attention?
 How did this memorable introduction affect your experience with
the rest of the text?
Serial Position Effect
 Psychology term coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus
 Refers to the human tendency to remember the first and
last items in a series best and the middle items the worst
 Primacy effect: first items are the most effectively stored in
the long term memory because they have the greatest
amount of processing devoted to them
 Recency effect: final items are still present in working
memory because of being so recently reviewed
 What implications does this have for us in a composition
class?
Universal Introduction Strategies
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General to specific
Eye-catching data
Ask reader to imagine a situation
In media res
Foreshadowing
 Rhetorical Appeals:
 Ethos
 Pathos
 Logos
 How do the rhetorical appeals fit with the above introduction
strategies?
Exploratory Narrative Introductions
 Engage readers
 This is the easiest and most effective place to grab your readers’ attention in the
whole essay
 The first few sentences are the most important for this
 Introduce the arguable issue you will be examining
 You should, at least somewhat, explain the opposing viewpoints that make this
issue controversial
 Explain your own view on the issue
 You should include personal experiences that may have affected this view
 Introduce a problematic or significant research question that will guide the rest
of the essay
Note: it is common for exploratory narrative introductions to be more than one
paragraph and slightly longer than the introductions from other forms of
college writing.
Group Activity 1: Intro Analysis
 In your unit 1 groups
 Select two example essays. You should have one copy of each and these should
be different from the sample exploratory narratives you read last week
 Read the introductory paragraphs (stop at the first source information) and
answer the following questions for both:
1.
What is the topic the student is addressing? What research question do they
ask about it?
2.
What kind of strategy does the student make use of in the introduction?
Does it sufficiently engage readers?
3.
What rhetorical appeal(s) do you think are most utilized in the introduction?
4.
Are the personal experiences or past of the writer presented here? How did
they shape the writer’s viewpoint?
5.
What is the writer’s research question? Is it clear and easy to identify? Does it
fit the criteria for an exploratory narrative thesis questions that we discussed
last class?
Introductions: Final Word
 The most important takeaway from this lesson:
 Introductions are one of the most important elements of
your writing! This is not a section to simply ‘slap on’ at
the last minute
 Readers are most likely to remember information from
your introduction and conclusion.
 If you do not grab reader attention by the end of the
introduction, there is a chance you will never fully grab
it by the end of the essay.
Group Activity 2: Intro Brainstorm
 In your unit 1 groups
For each student, brainstorm at least two possible
introduction strategies that could be used for the
student’s exploratory narrative
2. Identify which rhetorical appeal would best fit for
each of these introduction strategies
1.
Homework
 Read A&B p. 259-262
 Journal Entry 6: Exploratory Narrative Introduction
 Based on our discussions in class today, begin construction the
introduction to your exploratory narrative in your journal
 Make sure to include the necessary elements we discussed in class,
including: an explanation of the issue, your research question, how
your personal view on the issue, and some kind of strategy for
grabbing reader attention
 Note: This journal entry may be slightly longer than others. 1-2
pages is completely acceptable.
 Exploratory Narrative First Draft: (Due Thursday 2/5)
 The first draft of your Exploratory Narrative should include your
introduction as well as the body paragraphs for the first three
sources of your writing. It is strongly recommended that you rely on
your journal entries to aid you in writing these body paragraphs