Term Paper Introduction

Term Paper Introduction Prompt

For this assignment all that I need from you is your introduction. This should be a single page that includes:

1. The heading at the top of the page (not in the margins)

2. A title – this can be tentative

3. One (1) paragraph the contains the following:

a. An introductory sentence that signals to the reader the topic that is being analyzed.

b. A couple of sentences that provides the historical context of the topic.

c. Another sentence (or two) that lists some of the points that are going to be made.

d. The last sentence should be your thesis which is not simply making a statement of fact or asking a question, it should advance an argument that you will be making in the paper.

For more on what a thesis is and how to craft one, you can find some materials in the Writing Materials folder on Blackboard or you can refer to the writing guide of your choice.

In all, the introduction should be roughly around five to six (5-6) sentences long. Make sure that your final sentence is clearly discernable as the thesis. You should be consulting with your sources as you develop the thesis, because you will have to support the argument you make with quotes and analysis from the sources.

On Sources: Do not cite or quote from your sources in the introduction. The intro is where you are telling the reader – in your own words – what the topic is and what you’re going to argue in the paper. As you proceed in the writing process of this paper, make sure you’re using the primary and secondary sources you selected for analysis and review. If you wish to use an extra source, it will have to be another journal article or primary source. The use of extra sources will be further explained in the prompt for the bibliography assignment.

Due Monday November 9 at midnight.

THESIS STATEMENTS

1. Any thesis statement must first be S.O.D:

a. Specific

b. Opinionated

c. Deniable

2. A good thesis statement limits the scope of the subject to the length, purpose, and audience of the paper.

a. Be as specific as possible.  

b. Your thesis must be narrow enough that your topic can be discussed fully in the space available.

3. A thesis statement is not a topic sentence, a title, or a summary; rather, you must make a deniable
assertion
.  That is, you are proposing an idea that someone else might not share.

4. A thesis must be unified;  that is, it expresses only one idea (that is to say, you do not want to write about both the age and the composition of the moon unless you can find a way to connect the two logically into one coherent idea—the fact that they both have to do with  the moon is too weak a connection).

5. Any thesis statement must be intended for a specific audience. A thesis statement written for no specific audience (or for a “universal audience,” which is the same thing) is a bad thesis statement.

6. A good thesis statement is never:

a. a title (“The Civil War in America.”),

b. an announcement (“In this paper I will discuss the Civil War.”),

c. an unquestioned fact (“The Civil War is the deadliest conflict in American history.”),

d. or an unanswered question (“What are the were some of the causes leading to the Civil War?”).

7. The biggest error most beginning scholarly writers commit is to create a thesis statement that is too broad (and would take a large book–or an entire career–to write about). Their greatest fear is narrowing their subject too much and not having enough to write on. This is wrong, however.

8. Your purpose in scholarly writing is normally not to write a general introduction “for dummies” to a broad field of knowledge (e.g., smoking, health care, astronomy, auto maintenance). Nor is it just to prove you read the assignment or did the research. Rather, it is to for you to do an intensely focused, in-depth study of one tiny bit of knowledge, where you learn just about everything there is to know about the question and become the expert on that tiny subject. Then you write the paper as an expert writing to other experts.

9. In many forms of scholarly writing your text begins with a hard-hitting thesis statement. In others, the thesis statement is placed at the end of the introduction. Ask your professor which is right for your particular writing situation and for your specific audience. 

** For my course, place the thesis at the end of your introductory paragraph. **