Do's and Don'ts - Ethos and Identity Introduction

1. Do’s and Don’ts for your Introduction

2. DON’T write an introduction like you’d write
for a “Paper”
In Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of The
Life, he depicts his journey through
slavery, the hardships it brought him,
and the process of his life until he
ultimately escaped from slavery.
Throughout this book Douglass utilizes
his rhetoric to persuade the reader into
understanding how tragic slavery is.
Douglass uses a multitude of
techniques to build his rhetoric, the
strongest examples of these are his use
of repletion and varying sentence
structure to push his ethos, pathos,
and logos to the reader.
This is the kind of introduction you’d
write for a short paper in class. It’s fine,
but it’s also kind of boring.
It feels like the student is writing a
paper for the teacher, which – to be
fair – he was.
But if you’re an outside reader, you’d
only keep reading if you had to.

3. DO think of the introduction as trying to draw
in readers.
You want to treat this as an “article” or
even a “page” instead of a paper. For
instance, read over this project a
student completed for a similar project.
This is the opening paragraph – it
doesn’t treat the reader like a
“teacher,” but like a reader – someone
who they hope will read more.
You can read it here:
https://matthewmeyer.atavist.com/sop
hronia-a-new-castle-pioneer

4. DON’T assume you reader knows too much.
I am going to read this as if I am an outside
reader.
I might know a little bit about these texts, but I
don’t know everything.
For instance, I might know that Frederick
Douglass was an important American person,
but that may be it. Did you know about any of
these people beforehand?
Therefore, DO think about writing this project
for yourself BEFORE you read these books.
A Problem Introduction:
Frederick Douglass’ book is full of ethos
and pathos. Harriet Jacobs book is
about resisting rather than rebelling. In
this paper . . .
In Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of an
American Slave, he shows how much
he was hurt by being a slave.
(Don’t – see some of the samples in the
next few slides)

5. For instance, here’s a good one.
This is from:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve
/freedom/1609-
1865/essays/douglassjacobs.htm
This is by a more “professional” writer than
you are, but I think you can even come up
with one better than this.
Notice how it sets up the texts for a reader
who has just found the page.

6. DON’T think of this as
“Class Paper”
Don’t assume your reader knows what you’re
talking about or writing about going into the paper.
Don’t assume your reader has read Douglass,
Satrapi, or Jacobs.
Don’t refer to class concepts as though the person
reading this is in the class.
Here’s a paper a student wrote about the TV show
“Scorpion.” You may have never seen it, but from
these opening sentences, you get the point, right?
You can read it here:
https://brandontish.atavist.com/scorpion

7. Regarding First Person
DON’T
Just say “I think” or “in my
opinion.”
Overuse first person. You can
use it, but you shouldn’t rely
on it.
DO
Think about how your
experience might speak to, or
have affected the way you
experienced, the texts you’ve
read.
Refer to your reactions to
portions, and suggest why these
are relevant.

8. DON’T
Just say “I think” or “in my
opinion.”
Overuse first person. You can
use it, but you shouldn’t rely
on it.
AVOID THIS:
I think Frederick Douglass’
Narrative of an American
Slave is a great book. I will be
a comparing Frederick
Douglass to Marjarie Satrapi . .
.
Regarding First Person

9. Regarding First Person
A SAMPLE INTRODUCTION
I grew up in Kansas, a state whose
history with slavery was, to say the
least, complicated. From 1854 to
1861, there were a series of border
wars known as “Bloody Kansas.”
People died – slaveowners, slaves,
and abolitionists alike. Therefore,
reading a story like the one
Frederick Douglass (even though it
was set in Maryland) was like
understanding the dark history of
the state, and the country, where I
was born.
DO
Think about how your
experience might speak to, or
have affected the way you
experienced, the texts you’ve
read.
Refer to your reactions to
portions, and suggest why these
are relevant.

10. IDEAS for the introduction
Begin with an anecdote from one of the texts).
Begin with a quote (from the text we’ve read
or from somewhere else).
Begin by describing an overview of the texts
you’ve read.
Begin by setting the moment in history, or the
ideas you want to deal with.
Here’s another example from a student
project.
https://jackhanesv.atavist.com/investigating-
into-the-wild

11. IDEAS for the introduction
Begin with a quote (from the text we’ve read
or from somewhere else).
“At times I would rise up, a flash of energetic
freedom would dart through my soul,
accompanied with a faint beam of hope, that
flickered for a moment, and then vanished.”
This was one of the many times that Frederick
Douglass experienced this “flash.”

12. IDEAS for the introduction
Begin with an anecdote from one of the
texts).
Have you ever felt trapped? Linda did. But not
just for a few hours or a few days. For years,
she hid in an attic. The attic in my house is
tiny: you have to duck to fit in there, but it’s
still bigger than where she was. She wrote,
“My limbs were benumbed by inaction, and
the cold filled them with cramp. I had a very
painful sensation of coldness in my head; even
my face and tongue stiffened, and I lost the
power of speech.”

13. IDEAS for the Introduction
Begin by setting the moment in history, or
the ideas you want to deal with.
People who live under dictators still
experience suffering that we, as Americans,
can’t even imagine. As much as they might
experience physical pain, what is even worse
is a loss of identity . . .

14. Words to avoid
Interesting
Good
Bad
Important
Positive
Negative
Throughout history,
In Society,
The point is not that
these words are bad,
it’s that they’re broad.
So avoid broad
sentiments as well:
“Slavery was bad.”
“The Shah had a
negative effect on
Iran.”

15. REMINDER
You need a good, thoughtful title.
“Ethos and Identity” is not a good thoughtful title.
“Analysis of Douglass and Satrapi” isn’t either.
Your title goes here on Wordpress:
(Not a great title, but better than the
ones above)