Section 26: Transitions
Skills Focus: Organization Using topic sentences to keep your own narrative in the foreground
Skills Focus: Organization Using transitions and key terms to clarify relationships between paragraphs and ideas and to signpost a change in direction or shift in perspective
HW Draft a Provisional 2-¶ Introduction for Your Exploratory Essay. Here’s a format to try:
- In the first paragraph, present an anecdote, vivid description, imagined scenario, or startling fact that illustrates a thought-provoking aspect of the issue your essay will explore.
- For examples of this type of essay opening, see the beginnings of
- Clive Thompson’s “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy”
- Jeffrey Rosen’s “The Web Means the End of Forgetting”
- Alice Marwick’s “Lifestreaming: We Live in Public,” chap. 5 in Status Update
- For examples of this type of essay opening, see the beginnings of
- Be sure to come up with your own anecdote, startling fact, etc.—don’t open your essay using the same material another writer opened with.
- In the second paragraph, comment on the anecdote, imagined scenario, startling fact, etc. that you presented in the first paragraph, explaining what issues it raises or challenges; why it seems surprising, promising, or worrisome; and what questions it poses.
- End the 2nd ¶ by articulating the question that you plan to address in the third paragraph.
- Post your provisional introduction to the student writing section of the course website.