Blog Assignment: Introductions, due Jan. 26

In class today I presented you with several strategies to create a good introduction opening for an essay on literature.

Open with a significant line, word, phrase, sentence that you can do a bit of close reading analysis with to lead the reader into your thesis rather than confronting the reader with your thesis from word one.

Open with a question or two that provokes the reader to think about a broad issue that your analysis of the text will engage with in a more specific way.

Open with an initial and/or apparently obvious response to the text that you will work against in your essay. "At first glance TEXT A appears to say ___ about TOPIC X, but a closer look reveals it might actually be saying ______ about TOPIC X."

Open with a quote from another text, possibly a quote that can be extended or complicated by your analysis of the literary text you are working with, or a quote that can be undermined by it. You could use a quote by the same author in a different text, or by a totally different author.

Open with a cliche or "common knowledge" generalization that your analysis of the text will challenge.

Open with a scene or anecdote from outside of the text you're analyzing. Maybe you want to open with an anecdote about a real life experience of the situation that is taking place in the poem or about the issue the poem engages. Maybe you want to open with a reference to an encounter you've had with the text in daily life--in a tv show, film, or conversation with roommates.


The Assignment: Choose one poem we've read so far and choose one Intro strategy. Write up a solid, revised Introduction to an essay on that poem. 300-400 words.