Prof. Brian Koster Unit 5 Seminar

Welcome! Any questions from Unit 4?

The Writing Process We have already done pre-writing, outlining, and now we are writing the introduction.

The Writing Process The introduction announces the main point; the body develops it, usually in several paragraphs; the conclusion drives it home.

The Writing Process Let’s talk about how to write a good lead. Ready?

Writing a Good Lead 1. Summarize the story. The reader must understand what the whole story is about by reading the first paragraph. The most important and critical information must come first. 2. Answer The Five Ws. Try to answer the who, what, when, where, and why of the story. 3. Grab Your Attention. Like a good headline, the lead must grab and hold the reader's attention.

Writing a Good lead 4. Make Every Word Count. Aim for brevity and word economy. Less is more. Edit out words to increase impact. 5. Make Sense. Write for meaning. 6. Be Accurate. Stick to the facts and be truthful. Avoid fluff and hype. 7. Keep to One Sentence. Simplicity is the key to great lead paragraphs.

Writing a Good Lead 8. Provide Context. If you are introducing an organization or person for the first time, provide descriptive words immediately prior to or after the company or individual name. 9. Be Precise. Precision is vital. Out of all the information you could get across, what is the most important? 10. Edit, Check and Proofread a Minimum of three times. Nothing will shoot your credibility down like a typo or error in the lead. First impressions count no matter how good the story is.

Writing the Introduction Some effective techniques for openings include: Including anecdotes (short, to the point, stories) that illustrate your point Stating a position directly or addressing the reader directly Using a specific incident to make a general statement about society

Writing a Good Introduction A major problem in essays is a lack of clear focus or a poorly developed thesis statement. Make your thesis very clear. Do not be afraid to make a strong statement and don’t water down your thesis with “I think, I feel, I believe, etc”. Above all else, remember your thesis is the heart of your paper. It should be clearly identifiable and everything else in your paper should support it. A good location for the thesis is toward the end of the first paragraph. This way the introductory paragraph acts as a funnel, enticing the reader with some general ideas or anecdotes, giving a few more details and then ending with the main ideas to be further explored within the body paragraphs to come in the writing.

Writing a Good Introduction It is never a good idea to begin a paper with “This paper will…” because your reader is already aware of reading a paper and this doesn’t really give us any additional information.

Unit 5 Project For your Unit 5 project, you will be writing ONE PARAGRAPH. That paragraph will be your INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH. Remember, you will only write ONE complete paragraph.

Unit 5 Project Your paragraph should be indented and double spaced. For more information on double spacing, there is a help document in Doc Sharing. You will use 12-point font size in either Arial or Times New Roman font.

Unit 5 Assignments The following assignments are due by 11:59pm ET on Tuesday: 1. Unit 5 Seminar 2. Discussion (reply to the Discussion topic and at least two classmate replies) 3. Unit 5 Quiz 4. Unit 5 Project (turned in to the Dropbox, attached as a Microsoft Word file)

Questions? Any questions before we wrap-up tonight’s seminar?