Welcome to De Anza!

Agenda Introductions Homework: Critically evaluate your introduction, and rewrite the beginning of your essay if necessary. Continue writing your first draft if you have not yet finished. Proofread if you have a complete draft.

Workshopping Your final draft will be evaluated according to ideas and development, organization, and language use. Organization Appropriate paragraph breaks Flow: transitions, topic sentences, paragraphs stay on topic Introduction that leads directly to the body of the essay and orients the reader Conclusion that gives a sense of completeness and also a sense of direction

Introductions  Guidelines: The scope of your introduction should be only slightly broader than the scope of the body of your essay. Your introduction should be appropriate for your essay and your essay only. Your introduction should lead directly to the body of your essay. Your introduction should point towards the key moment of your essay. For a personal narrative you do not need a thesis at the end of your introduction. Do not use a cheap “hook.” You should not view your readers as people you will manipulate. Most likely, if you wrote your introduction before the body of your essay, you will need to discard most of your introduction. In many cases, a slightly expanded second paragraph will introduce your essay better than the original introduction. 

Introductions Techniques Since you are writing a personal narrative, you will mention things in your introduction that you would typically mention when you introduce yourself. It would also be appropriate to introduce important people and places. Most likely, you will set up a contrast. The introduction will probably give background from the time before the problem emerged. Questions? Jin, Cameron, Emily, Vy

Introductions Write some notes to yourself about your introduction. Discuss your introduction with someone sitting next to you.

Homework Critically evaluate your introduction, and rewrite the beginning of your essay if necessary. Continue writing your first draft if you have not yet finished. Start proofreading if you have a complete draft.