Writer’s Workshop to get you started Writing the Introduction

When I’m reading a good essay, I feel that I’m going on a journey. The essayist is searching for something and taking me along. That something could be a particular idea, an unraveling of identity, a meaning in the wallow of observations and facts. The facts are important but never enough. An essay, for me, must go past the facts, an essay must travel and move. Even the facts of the essayist’s own history, the personal memoir, are insufficient alone. The facts of personal history provide anchor, but the essayist then swings in a wide arc on his anchor line, testing and pulling hard. I suppose that in the end, the real subject of an essay is the essayist. Not the bald facts of autobiography, on the one hand, or the bald opinions about issues, on the other, but some kind of union between the inner person and the outer world, a melding of internal and external, the life and mind of the essayist in reaction to the universe. The essayist cannot examine the world without examining herself, and she cannot examine herself without examining the world. – Alan Lightman

The objectives for this writing workshop are to… ◦ select a strategy to engage your reader by establishing point of view. ◦ introduce narrator and characters. ◦ engage and orient your reader in problem, situation, or observation. Objectives

Startling or Interesting Facts An unusual fact can disturb, surprise, or inform your readers or make them curious.

A graphic, mysterious, or sensory description of a person or place can capture the reader’s imagination. Vivid, Detailed Descriptions

A question can get your reader thinking and wanting to read on to find the answer. Questions

A bit of retelling – of a story or one interesting event – adds human interest that can draw a reader into a piece. Incidents or Anecdotes

A quotation can personalize and add interest to a piece of writing. Quotations