Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill [233]
This paragraph identifies the subject, but it neither addresses why the subject matters nor suggests the writer’s approach. Nor does it provide background to the topic or suggest a hypothesis that the paper will pursue. In some kinds of essays, especially those that move (inductively) from specific observations to more general claims, there is little need for procedural openings, with their declaration of intention and method at the outset. As the following Voice from Across the Curriculum reveals, however, there is real difference on this matter across disciplines.
Using Procedural Openings: A Political Science Professor Speaks
In the following Voices from Across the Curriculum box, political science professor Jack Gambino explains a common organizational strategy used to orient readers, particularly in social science papers.
Voices from Across the Curriculum
I encourage students to provide a “road map” paragraph early in the paper, perhaps the second or third paragraph. (This is a common practice in professional journals.) The “road map” tells the reader the basic outline of the argument. Something like the following: “In the first part of my paper I will present a brief history of the issue… . This will be followed by an account of the current controversy… . Part III will spell out my alternative account and evidence… . I then conclude… .” I think such a paragraph becomes more necessary with longer papers.
—Jack Gambino, Professor of Political Science
GOOD WAYS TO BEGIN
All of the following ways to begin a paper enable you to play an ace, establishing your authority with your readers, without having to play your whole hand. They offer a starting position rather than a miniaturized version of the entire paper. Remember that the aim of the introduction is to answer the question, Why does what I’m about to say matter? What makes it especially interesting or revealing, and in what context? Here are a few methods of accomplishing this aim.
Challenge a Commonly Held View
This move provides you with a framework against which to develop your ideas; it allows you to begin with some back pressure, which will help you to define your position. Because you are responding to a known point of view, you have a ready way of integrating context into your paper. As the economics professor notes of the FDR example, until we understand what the prevailing view is on FDR, it is pointless to start considering whether or not he was a Keynesian.
Begin with a Definition
Beginning with a definition is a reliable way to introduce a topic, so long as that definition has some significance for the discussion to follow. If the definition doesn’t do any conceptual work in the introduction, the definition gambit becomes a pointless cliché.
You are most likely to avoid a cliché if you cite a source other than a standard dictionary for your definition. The reference collection of any academic library contains a range of discipline-specific lexicons that provide more precise and authoritative definitions than Webster ever could. A useful alternative is to quote a particular author’s definition of a key term because you want to make a point about his or her particular definition: for example, “Although the Dictionary of Economics defines Keynesianism as XYZ, Smith treats only X and Y ” (or substitutes A for Z, and so forth).
Lead with Your Second-Best Example
Another versatile opening gambit, where disciplinary conventions allow, is to use your second-best example to set up the issue or question that you later develop in depth with your best example. This gambit is especially useful in papers that proceed inductively on the strength of representative examples, an organizational pattern common in the humanities. As you are assembling evidence in the outlining and prewriting stage, in many cases you will accumulate a number of examples that illustrate the same basic point. For example, several battles might illustrate a particular general’s military strategy; several political primaries might exemplify how a particular