Essay Writing

Last time we dealt with the thesis of the paper and I said it was the backbone that held the paper together. The thesis should be idealy a one sentence a summary of the essay. "The American Revolution was a struggle for nationalism, economics, political power and ultimately liberty." You may not fully understand from that thesis but it does tell you why there was a revolution. More importantly for out purposes here this thesis also tells you how to write the rest of the essay. Since this class is one on American history, our readings covered a lot of information other than the subject of the revolution. So you want to begin with a good introduction which does two - no three things.
First the introduction moves the reader and the grader into the subject of the paper. It takes my interest from what I was doing and shifts it to what you want me to get. Some subjects are so fascinating they don't need an introduction but not many. The American Revolution may be one of them but I am not convinced so the introduction should tell me why I want to read another paper on this subject. It take my focus from the broad universe down to limited scope of your paper. All introductions do that.
Second because this is an academic essay, the essay has an additional purpose of show the grader, me, that you understand that the subject is much broader than your paper and that you understand all that other information too. So a good academic essay will briefly summarize the material that is not going to be deal with more completely in the essay. Our reading talked about the French and Indian War and the continued movement of English to America. It also talked about the continued conflict, between Europeans and Native Americans. So you might want to summarize those issues in a sentence to two and add one about the importance of the America revolution.
Third a good academic introduction presents the thesis. I always tell my student not to write mysteries. I don't want to wait until the end to find our who done it. I want to know from the very beginning. So the introduction should take my interest and move it forward from the settlement of America, to the long stuggles to push the Native Americans off the land and the long struggles betweeen in England and France to the important struggle that is the American Revolution and then spring the thesis on me.