Today’s class will focus on introductions. Here’s a Google Doc we will share.
We will start by introducing each other.
We will then talk about how introductions are vitally important, not only for getting to know each other, but for acquainting our reader with sources in our writing.
Examples from the NYTimes:
- Tropical Storm Rose, one of three named storms to form in recent days, is not expected to strengthen as it moves west across the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said.
- “We are fortunate right now that both Rose and Peter will have no direct impact on the U.S.,” Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the hurricane center, said on Monday. But he added that it was too early to say whether swells from the storms would reach the United States.
—From “Rose, the Third Tropical Storm in Recent Days, Is Expected to Weaken”
Jessie Sweeney, 23, a student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, was single when she moved to Baltimore, Md., at the height of the pandemic. At first, she used a few different dating apps, like Hinge, to get to know people in the area, and made sure to keep her mother in the loop. “My mother, as Jewish mothers go, is very involved in my life,” Ms. Sweeney said.
—From “Having Trouble Finding Your Soul Mate? Let Mom Do It For You”
My problem was not so much the air quality, but how little of the stuff there seemed to be. I’d flown to this ski-resort town to meet Doerr — best known as the author of the Pulitzer-winning 2014 novel, “All the Light We Cannot See” — to talk about his new book, “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” which will be released by Scribner on Sept. 28.
—From “For His Next Act, Anthony Doerr Wrote a Book About Everything”
The introduction we will use in academic writing is a bit more sophisticated, but is the same idea. You want to give your reader an idea of WHY this book/source/quote/etc. is relevant to YOUR argument.
This introductory style is called the Rhetorical Précis (very French! Sophisticated!). Today we will work to master rhetorical précis lite (my term).
What is a rhetorical précis? It’s a four sentence, madlib-like introduction where you’ll add specific details (fill in the blanks) to introduce various sources / authors / works of literature.
SENTENCE 1 – include the following:
1. the name of author
2. a phrase describing the author’s credentials
3. the type and title of work, the date of work (inserted in parentheses)
4. a specific and accurate verb (such as “assert,” “argue,” “suggest,” “imply,” “claim,” “posit,” etc.) that describes what the author is doing in the text
5. a THAT clause in which you state the major meaning of the author’s text.
Another way of looking at this is:
(Author’s first and last name), (author’s credentials [note, this can go before author’s name), in his/her (type of text), (title of text), published in (publishing info), addresses the topic of (topic of text) and argues that (argument).
For instance:
Toni Morrison, a well-known scholar in the humanities, in her essay, “Disturbing Nurses and the Kindness of Sharks,” implies THAT racism in the United States has affected the craft and process of American novelists.
Let’s practice:
Amy Tan; credentials?
“Mother Tongue” (1990); type?
What is she doing? What’s the major meaning?
What about the authors you will use for the language narrative analysis?
