English Essay Introduction

[TylerD9]

Disclaimer: I am not in VCE and I couldn't find any forums for non-VCE English. Feel free to move my post to a more suitable forum, and I apologize if I cause any inconvenience.

Hello,

So I have exams coming up, and I need some help with how to write an introduction.

Firstly, I am unsure how to start an essay. All I do is state the author, text and give a tiny bit of information. For example, "William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' explores the lives of two lovers, and how their love causes their lives to end." My teacher has told me that this is fine for the current time, but I want to add more sophistication to my essay, but I'm not sure how else to start it.

Secondly, my teacher has advised me that in my introduction, when stating my three points, to generalize them. For example, instead of "Friar Laurence is the one responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he provided Juliet with the potion to fake her own death..." I would write "Friar Laurence is the one responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet as he involved an unstable teenage girl in a plan where she fakes her own death...". Is this the correct way to write my three points, as my previous English teachers have been fine with just stating my three main points straight up.

Thank you for your response.

[patriciarose]

Disclaimer: I am not in VCE and I couldn't find any forums for non-VCE English. Feel free to move my post to a more suitable forum, and I apologize if I cause any inconvenience.

Hello,

So I have exams coming up, and I need some help with how to write an introduction.

Firstly, I am unsure how to start an essay. All I do is state the author, text and give a tiny bit of information. For example, "William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' explores the lives of two lovers, and how their love causes their lives to end." My teacher has told me that this is fine for the current time, but I want to add more sophistication to my essay, but I'm not sure how else to start it.

Secondly, my teacher has advised me that in my introduction, when stating my three points, to generalize them. For example, instead of "Friar Laurence is the one responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he provided Juliet with the potion to fake her own death..." I would write "Friar Laurence is the one responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet as he involved an unstable teenage girl in a plan where she fakes her own death...". Is this the correct way to write my three points, as my previous English teachers have been fine with just stating my three main points straight up.

Thank you for your response.

there are forums for hsc, wace and sace english! (but the latter two are fairly empty so i see your point.) if they're what you're looking for, you can scroll down here (https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php) til you find the appropriate one (: one day i will learn how to link, but today is not that day.[/size]

um, so, i have 0 clue how your english works or what they like you to do? the kind of essay you're writing impacts upon the kind of introduction you do. i'm going to assume it's text response, but either way, take all of this with a grain (read: bucketful) of salt because things probably differ in each state.

personally, i'd avoid summarising my points because if you do that, you're cutting down everything you're going to impart into a small concise sentence and it means if you deviate from that even slightly, they will notice when they're marking it. all i do in my introduction is contextualise: author, title, very very small amount of background information that is related to whatever i'm going to discuss (generally you can assume your marker knows the plot, so don't go listing that) and then link the theme of the essay in. there is nothing wrong with stating what your points are, it just isn't super complex and limits you somewhat.

if you're going to summarise your main points, though, then i think i would do it more generally? that way, you don't overshadow your paragraphs. if you put your whole essay into your introduction, there's no reason to write or read the rest of it. the introduction just kind of introduces you. that second sentence you wrote is better than the first one, but if it means you're just going to be restating the same thing in your body paragraph, pick the former sentence for your introduction because at least then you'll be adding something to your discussion once you get to the body paragraph.

anyone else please feel free to add to/totally contradict this! there are definitely different ways to write an introduction haha. also i have 0 credibility because i'm only in year twelve oops.

[TylerD9]

there are forums for hsc, wace and sace english! (but the latter two are fairly empty so i see your point.) if they're what you're looking for, you can scroll down here (https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php) til you find the appropriate one (: one day i will learn how to link, but today is not that day.[/size]

um, so, i have 0 clue how your english works or what they like you to do? the kind of essay you're writing impacts upon the kind of introduction you do. i'm going to assume it's text response, but either way, take all of this with a grain (read: bucketful) of salt because things probably differ in each state.

personally, i'd avoid summarising my points because if you do that, you're cutting down everything you're going to impart into a small concise sentence and it means if you deviate from that even slightly, they will notice when they're marking it. all i do in my introduction is contextualise: author, title, very very small amount of background information that is related to whatever i'm going to discuss (generally you can assume your marker knows the plot, so don't go listing that) and then link the theme of the essay in. there is nothing wrong with stating what your points are, it just isn't super complex and limits you somewhat.

if you're going to summarise your main points, though, then i think i would do it more generally? that way, you don't overshadow your paragraphs. if you put your whole essay into your introduction, there's no reason to write or read the rest of it. the introduction just kind of introduces you. that second sentence you wrote is better than the first one, but if it means you're just going to be restating the same thing in your body paragraph, pick the former sentence for your introduction because at least then you'll be adding something to your discussion once you get to the body paragraph.

anyone else please feel free to add to/totally contradict this! there are definitely different ways to write an introduction haha. also i have 0 credibility because i'm only in year twelve oops.

Hello, thank you for the response.

I actually won't be starting VCE until next year, so that's why I struggled to find a forum for my post. But hey, the entire site is named ATAR Notes, so kind of stupid on my part.

Yes, it is a text response (not on Romeo and Juliet though, that was just a previous example).

Part of my marking is to state my three points in the introduction, but yeah it makes sense to generalize them so I don't overshadow.

Once again, thank you for your response

[gisele]

You can outline your arguments in your intro if you want. You don't have to, but if your teacher is expecting that, then definitely do it.

I think what you mean by 'generalising' is to not go into too much detail in your intro. Yep in general, try not to have any examples in your introduction (or topic sentences either).
"Friar Laurence is the one responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he provided Juliet with the potion to fake her own death..." - this would be an example, as it's going into too much detail and specifics.
"Friar Laurence is the one responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet as he involved an unstable teenage girl in a plan where she fakes her own death..." - this is better...
BUTTTT (and it depends on the prompt) but as a general rule, try not to have any character names in your arguments either as it limits your scope of discussion. Basically, focus on broader ideas rather than examples/characters.