A. Introduction.

Background and context.

This is where you’ll give your reader the background information they need to understand your main thesis.

Give us a sense of the context in which your essay is situated. Whatever the reader needs to know for your main points to make sense, tell us in the introduction.

 

Keep it relevant.  

You’ve probably heard that in an intro you should start broad, with more general information, and become more specific as you go.

While this is true, keep in mind that you don’t want to begin TOO broadly. Even in your introduction, you don’t want to include any unnecessary information—make sure that everything is relevant and contributing to situating your essay’s content.

 

Thesis statement.  

Most readers will look for your thesis at the end of your introductory paragraph. This, again, is the main point of your essay in one sentence. Reading just your thesis statement, we should know what your whole essay is trying to tell us.

One way to think of the thesis statement is as a roadmap that outlines what the rest of your essay talks about. As we go through your essay, there should be no big surprises: your thesis should lead us to each of your main points.

 

All right, looks like it’s time to dive right in. I’m the sort of person who likes to begin with the introduction, since I know what I want to say.

Introduction.  

As a reminder, here’s what the assignment page said the intro should include:

  • Describes the image or text you have chosen to analyze, and its rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, and context).
  • A thesis statement that clearly states your claim about the image or text. The thesis statement should also mention how you plan to analyze the image or text. The thesis should come at the end of the introduction paragraph.

 

So then, before I get started for real, I want to fill in my working thesis statement:

This image attempts to persuade non-Christian college students to attend this Christian event by [making us trust that the man will give us a good magic show] and [creating huge drama with colors and atmosphere,] specifically leaving out any mention of the Christian nature of the show to avoid alienating non-religious students.

 

It's still messy, but it’ll give me something to work with. Now, to draft the actual paragraph, let’s reiterate: the things I want in my intro are a description of the image, the context (audience and purpose) of the image, and my thesis statement.

Beginning with background:

A flyer distributed to passing students on a college campus, no context or explanation given, shows a black-and-white photo of a good-looking man, one eyebrow raised, his stark blue eyes the only color on the picture. He has black tape over his mouth, and on the tape are the words “Magic Redefined” (citation). The only other pieces of information on the flyer are a date, time, and location.

 

Now I’ll describe the context, which comprises the audience and purpose for the image:

An advertisement for a magic show? The student receiving the flyer only knows what the image tells her. Clearly, the flyer’s purpose is to convince her to attend the show, but even more important than what’s in the image is what’s left out—namely, that the show isn’t simply a magic show, but a Christian event where the magic elements are used to make a religious point and attempt to proselytize to non-Christian audience members (citation).

 

And finally, I’ll tweak my thesis statement to fit in the paragraph:

Aimed at the general and non-religious student populace, the image focuses on using the rhetorical appeal of ethos to make the depicted man and his magic show look enticing, as well as using pathos to generate interest in the show by heightening drama and intrigue with the colors and atmosphere—deliberately leaving out any mention of the Christian nature of the event to avoid alienating non-religious students.

Now let’s see if I’ve done everything I wanted to do with this intro: there’s a description of the image and a brief outlining of the context. I’ve given my readers all the information I need them to know to make sense of the content that I intend to cover in the body of my essay. My thesis pretty much covers what I want my main points to be: it states the rhetorical appeals and briefly mentions the evidence I’m going to analyze.

It’s a little long, but it looks good enough for now. Let’s see the whole intro in one paragraph now, thesis statement underlined:

A flyer distributed to passing students on a college campus, no context or explanation given, shows a black-and-white photo of a good-looking man, one eyebrow raised, his stark blue eyes the only color on the picture. He has black tape over his mouth, and on the tape are the words “Magic Redefined” (citation). The only other pieces of information on the flyer are a date, time, and location. An advertisement for a magic show? The student receiving the flyer only knows what the image tells her. Clearly, the flyer’s purpose is to convince her to attend the show, but even more important than what’s in the image is what’s left out—namely, that the show isn’t simply a magic show, but a Christian event where the magic elements are used to make a religious point and attempt to proselytize to non-Christian audience members (citation). Aimed at the general and non-religious student populace, the image focuses on using the rhetorical appeal of ethos to make the depicted man and his magic show look enticing, as well as using pathos to generate interest in the show by heightening drama and intrigue with the colors and atmosphere—deliberately leaving out any mention of the Christian nature of the event to avoid alienating non-religious students.

I’m happy with it for now. We’ll see what my essay actually ends up looking like and worry about revising my intro later.