I. THE INTRODUCTION: The introduction is usually
one paragraph, or perhaps two in a paper of eight pages or more.
Its purpose is to: (1) set out the problem to be discussed; (2)
define key terms that will be used in that discussion; (3) outline
the structure of the argument; (4) CLEARLY STATE THE THESIS.
A. Suggestions for the introduction:
Establish the problem: Quickly established the issue your
paper confronts. Where and when are we? What are we examining? It
is especially important to clearly define the limits of your
exploration. If you are discussing the life of Frederick Douglass,
it will not suffice to establish the setting by referring to the
"days of slavery," since slavery has existed in all times all over
the world. Frederick Douglass was a slave in Maryland in the
decades before the Civil War. Do not begin a history paper with
absurdly general phrases like, "since the beginning of time," or
"humans have always. . . ." Get as specific as necessary as early
as possible.
Set the tone, voice, and style of your paper. (See
other guidelines for how this is done.) Make sure you convey that
the topic is of vital concern, and that you are interested in
it.
Catch the reader's attention. You might start with
an example, a quotation, a statistic, or a complaint. Be sure that
this opening theme runs through your paper. Do not abandon this
theme. You can use it again later to help unify your paper.
Provide a subtle blueprint (or "road map") for the
paper. Let your reader know where you are headed (how you
plan to tackle the subject) without giving away your best ideas.
If, for instance, your paper breaks down into political, social,
and cultural components, telegraph this to your reader so she will
know what to expect.
B. The thesis:
The last function of the introduction is to present your thesis.
This is so important to your paper that it merits lengthy
consideration -- please see my handout on this topic. The biggest
problem with student papers is that they contain no true thesis.
The second biggest problem with student papers is that the thesis
is vague and ill-defined.
How the thesis fits in the introductory paragraph:
The thesis statement is the one-sentence version of your argument.
The thesis thus presents your reader with new information. But a
good thesis will require you to introduce the concepts in it before
presenting the thesis itself. That is the task of the introductory
paragraph. The following introductory paragraph presents a thesis
that relies on concepts which have not been properly defined and
clarified:
Since the beginning of time
humans have owned one another in slavery. This brutal institution
was carried to its fullest extent in the United States in the years
between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Slaveholders
treated their slaves as chattel, brutalizing them with the whip and
the lash. The law never recognized the humanity of the slave, and
similarly regarded him as property. Consequently, there was a big
disparity between private and public rights of slaves.
This thesis presents two words -- "private" and "public" rights --
that are not even mentioned earlier in the paragraph. What are
these things? This paragraph does nothing to establish the
distinction. Instead, it is a bland statement of theme which
provides little background for the thesis. Thus, when we do read
the thesis, it seems to float -- the premises underlying it have
not been established. Compare the last introductory paragraph with
this one:
To many supporters of slavery,
the nature of slave rights had a dual character. On the one hand,
in order to maintain the total dominance of the white master class,
the law denied any rights to slaves. Publicly, the slave was merely
property, and not human at all. Yet the personal records of many
planters suggest that slaves often proved able to demand customary
"rights" from their masters. In the privacy of the master-slave
relationship, the black man did indeed have rights which the white
man was bound to respect, on pain of losing his labor or subjecting
himself to violence. This conflict between slaves' lack of "public"
rights and masters' "private" acknowledgment of slaves' rights
undermined planters' hegemony and permitted slaves to exert a
degree of autonomy and freedom within an oppressive
institution.
Note how quickly this paragraph lays the groundwork for the thesis.
It is clearly structured around two competing concepts -- public
and private rights -- which are then incorporated into the thesis.
Nearly every element of the thesis is established in the preceding
paragraph, yet the thesis itself is not a restatement of the
paragraph. This paragraph even tells the reader what sources will
be consulted: planters' personal records. Note finally that, in
contrast to the previous paragraph, the reader now has a strong
sense of what the paper will need to argue to prove its
thesis.
II. THE BODY: This takes up several pages, and
constitutes the bulk of your paper. Here is where you argue your
thesis. The content of this section largely will depend on your
thesis, and what it requires you to argue. Think to yourself, "what
do I need to support this argument?" If you find yourself unable to
answer, you may need a more interesting thesis.
A. Structure of the body: You need an organizing
scheme for your paper, which most often will be suggested by your
thesis. Let's take this thesis: "In the 1950s, American auto
workers developed their identities as laborers in the home as well
as the workplace." This thesis suggests a structure: at the very
least, you will have to divide things up into "home" and
"workplace."
B. Logic and flow: The general movement in the
body is from the general to the specific. Start with general
statements, such as "Federal policy towards native peoples aimed at
either assimilating Indians or exterminating them." Then move on to
specific statements which support your general statement, such as
"The origins of the policy of assimilation can be traced back to
Puritan missionaries of the 1650s."
C. Paragraphs: Your paper is built on paragraphs.
Each paragraph should be minimum of four (sometimes three)
sentences. The first sentence of each paragraph is called the
"topic sentence."
D. Topic sentences: The topic sentence should tell
the reader what the paragraph will be about. In essence, it is a
"mini-thesis" -- a small argument you will support in the
paragraph. The rest of the paragraph will be support for this
mini-argument. For example, the topic sentence for a paragraph may
be the general statement:
Federal policy towards native peoples aimed at either
assimilating Indians or exterminating them. (Note that you are
including no specific facts in this sentence, you are merely making
an argument which must be supported with facts and evidence.)
E. Support: Two kinds of support should appear in
your paragraphs:
Source evidence and quotations: Taken from primary (sometimes
secondary) sources. Can be quoted material, but not always -- you
can always paraphrase (put in your own words) this material, as
long as you acknowledge the source. This is the "raw data" that
supports the mini-thesis of your paragraph. In the case above
(federal policy towards Indians), you could, for instance, quote
portions of this letter from Thomas Jefferson, in which he
advocates to the Mohicans private ownership of land to Indians as a
means of assimilating them:
When once you have property,
you will want laws and magistrates to protect your property and
persons, and to punish those among you who commit crimes. You will
find that our laws are good for this purpose; you will wish to live
under them, you will unite yourselves with us, join in our Great
Councils and form one people with us, and we shall be
Americans.
(1)
Analysis: Raw data can never, everstand
alone to support your mini-thesis. It must always be
interpreted and analyzed. This is especially true of quotes.
Never just plop a quote in and expect it to be clear to
the reader how it supports the mini-thesis. Following each citation
of raw data, you must analyze and interpret it -- tell me
how it supports the point. In the case above, you must
supply the connection between the primary source evidence (the
quotation above) and your "mini-thesis" (that assimilation was one
of the goals of federal policy):
Jefferson had little interest in understanding Native American
culture and society on its own terms. To him, "assimilation" meant
encompassing natives in a web of obligations and institutional
arrangements which utterly departed from the anarchy he alleged
characterized their societies, and rendered them dependent upon the
"civilized" society he represented. (Note that these are my
thoughts, my words, and my analysis of the material. I am not
permitting the material to speak for itself, because it
cannot.)
F. Transitions: The body of the paper must flow
from one idea to the next. This linking of ideas is accomplished
through transitional phrases. There are transitions between
paragraphs, and transitions within paragraphs. Often, but not
always, the last sentence of a paragraph begins to guide the reader
to the next idea. (For this reason, it is often a good idea to end
paragraphs with a sentence summing-up their findings.) Or the topic
sentence of the next paragraph may accomplish this. In the current
example, this topic sentence for the next paragraph not only
introduces a new mini-thesis, it serves as a transition from the
preceding paragraph:
If Jefferson embodied a policy of assimilation, President
Andrew Jackson represented the ambivalence of a nation enamored
with both assimilation and extermination of Native Americans.
(The key to the transition is the phrase "If Jefferson embodied a
policy of assimilation." This phrase bridges the last paragraph by
summarizing its findings. As you can tell, the paragraph(s) must
deal with the ways Jackson represented the embodiment of both
policies towards Native Americans.)
Here is another example of a clear transition:
. . . Sailors in the merchant marine faced a troublesome labor
picture. Seasonal fluctuations and the unpredictability of the
economy of the shipping industry contributed to instability in
employment relations. These in turn led to a decline in workers's
loyalty and their sense of job stability.
Instability and insecurity also characterized the wage and
employment conditions of longshore work. . . . (The transition
here is built on the use of "also" in this topic sentence, which
links the "instability and insecurity" of the longshoremen in this
paragraph with the "instability and insecurity" of the sailors in
the previous paragraph.)
G. Arguing in the body: The body is where you will
flex your rhetorical muscle. Scholarly argument is not necessarily
rancorous; it does not rely upon heated emotions, raised voices,
and passionate appeals to the heart. Rather, scholarly arguments
marshall facts -- and analyze those facts -- in a
fashion intended to persuade the reader through reason
rather than emotion. The most important technique for doing this is
to anticipate the counter-arguments your argument is likely to
receive. You must constantly ask yourself, what arguments which
counter my thesis make sense? You may do this one of two
ways:
(1) you may refute an anticipated counter-argument by
proving that it is untrue (sort of a preemptive strike), as in,
"While the federal census of 1890 seems to suggest an increase
in black mortality, that census was infamous for recording specious
data."
(2) you may concede certain points: accept the truth of
statements which seem to refute your argument, but explain why they
actually do not harm your argument (sort of a strategic retreat),
as in "It was indeed true that Latino youth were incarcerated
at a rate three to four times greater than Anglo youth, yet this
may suggest the iniquitous workings of the local justice system
rather than a Latino propensity towards crime."
In history, these strategies often mean dealing with evidence that
seems to undermine the point you are trying to make. It is crucial
that you not ignore this evidence; after all, the reader will not.
Selectively invoking evidence while ignoring counter-arguments
undermines your credibility, and hence the force of your argument.
Consider the following paragraph:
White Southerners were concerned only with re-imposing a kind
of slavery on the freedpeople. They voted the straight Democratic
ticket, which sought to overturn "Negro rule," and they supported
secret organizations like the Klan and the Knights of the White
Camellia. In short, their regard for the civil rights of the
newly-freed slaves was almost non-existent. (The fallacy here
is one of over-generalization. The author claims that all
southern whites supported the move to return freedpeople to a kind
of slavery. But we know that some southern whites did
support black rights in the era, and voted Republican. By refusing
to consider countervailing evidence, the author undermines what is
a generally sound point: most southern whites supported the
Democracy, but not all. By anticipating and countering these
criticisms, this author would enhance her credibility and make a
good argument more persuasive.)
III. CONCLUSION: This is usually one paragraph
long, and briefly recapitulates your thesis, pulling all your
arguments together. The first sentence of the concluding paragraph
is a clear, specific re-statement of thesis. The conclusion should
do more than simply re-state the argument. It also suggests why the
argument is important in the bigger scheme of things, or suggests
avenues for further research, or raises a bigger
question.
1. Jefferson to
Delawares, Mohicans, and Munries, December 21, 1808, in Andrew A.
Lipscomb and Albert E. Bergh, eds., Writings of Thomas
Jefferson (Washington, DC, 1904), vol. 16, p. 452.
http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/three%20parts.htm
http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/