BREAKING NEWS!! 3Q REVISED! THE PERFECT INTRO. HAS BECOME MORE PERFECT!
The Perfect INTRO.
Do this. I like it, and, ahem, the College Board likes it. Go with it.
- Two to Three sentences:
First sentence wholly addresses all parts of the prompt, including your language claims and your answer of the prompt (usually theme, meaning, etc.)
Second sentence further explains answer component of prompt (no more language claims.)
Third sentence (optional, but truly recommended as long as you don’t repeat yourself) further explains and offers new insight into your second sentence, possibly relating devices to added explanation.
- Author and title must be included somewhere, just not in the absolute very beginning (i.e. do not begin “In Poe’s Cask of Amontillado….”) Blech.
- No examples in the perfect intro. Ever. Save them for the following paragraphs where your CSEs will go on to analyze your thesis in depth.
My Examples:
Prompt 1: The attached two poems are about Helen of Troy. Renowned in the ancient world for her beauty, Helen was the wife of Menelaus, a Greek King. She was carried off to Troy by the Trojan prince Paris, and her abduction was the immediate cause of the Trojan War. Read both poems carefully. Considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone, contrast the speakers' views of Helen.
Through the use of contrasting diction and physical imagery, Poe’s “To Helen” and Doolittle’s “Helen” display opposition toward Helen’s role in history as both loved and hated. Both speakers exemplify personal opinions of glory and enmity, using her beauty as the catalyst for good and evil.
See? The first thesis statement answers the whole prompt including language claims, and the second sentence only further explains the prompt’s task of “contrast[ing] the speakers’ views of Helen” as already mentioned in the thesis.
Prompt 2: Read the poem “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne. Analyze how language demonstrates Donne’s attitude toward death.
The permanence of death is mocked and belittled in “Death Be Not Proud” through personification and sardonic imagery. Donne criticizes Death’s power over the human condition as powerless and even considers it as the true means to achieving eternal life.
Bam. Basket o’ Fun for me. Notice, again, how I answered the entire prompt in the first thesis sentence, using both language and addressing the second task of “Donne’s attitude toward death.” The second sentence, then, is solely devoted to further explaining “Donne’s attitude toward death” that I already brought up in the first sentence. ALSO, notice how I claimed the types of language I was going to talk about – personification and imagery. I did not just repeat “language” in my first sentence.
New! New! New! I like to write New!
Prompt 3: Identify the author’s attitude toward the contemporary world in Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much With Us.” How is this attitude revealed through the poem’s tone? Consider how the rhyme scheme, meter and form establish this tone.
The use of iambic pentameter and a Petrarchan sonnet rhyme scheme convey Wordsworth’s furious tone in abhorrence toward an unappreciative modern world. In “The World is Too Much With Us,” the author angrily criticizes societal indifference as a selfish focus on materialistic value rather than true natural beauty. Carefully juxtaposing the closed form of a sonnet with represented chaos, Wordsworth is able to highlight the perfection of nature and imperfection of human ignorance.
Looky here: The first thesis sentence addresses ALL parts of the prompt, including attitude (“abhorrence”) tone (“furious”) and language claims (“iambic pentameter,” “Petrarchan sonnet rhyme scheme.”) The second sentence further explains the attitude and tone only, further explaining the why and how of his furious abhorrence. The third sentence, now, still further explains his attitude, but also offers added insight of the combination of form with attitude.