The passage I chose was from PACE weekly 11/9/15. It is an email sent by the PACE program and briefly introduces what first-year students are expected to do for the whole week.

The introduction paragraph is:

“Advising weeks are well underway for Spring 2016 pre-registration. You should have already reached out to your PACE Faculty Advisor (and hopefully already met, or are scheduled to meet) to discuss your fall semester and plans for spring. If you are having difficulty contacting your PACE faculty advisor, please email Ms. McDowell (tmcdowe [at] emory [dot] edu) to let her know. You may also schedule a meeting with an OUE Academic Advisor by logging in to ASST (http://www.emory.edu/asst). Use the checklist below to guide your Spring 2016 registration process.”

The first sentence serves as a brief opening of the paragraph. It indicates what this email is for, in this case, “Spring 2016 pre-registration”. The second sentence uses the word “should” and “already” to create an atmosphere of anxiety. This sentence will make students who have already finished their task feel rewarding since they do not have to feel nervous for the rest of the week. On the other hand, for those who have not accomplished their tasks, this sentences will make them feel uneasy and thus urging them to read the rest of the article to find out what they need to do. The third sentence generally introduce a “concede” statement. It offers a solution to students who have difficulty contacting their advisors and provides an authority who they can turn to. The author does not assume that everyone has finished their task; however, the author does not say anything like “it is okay for you to not complete your task”, which will crucially weaken the thesis statement. As a result, the author chooses to concede by providing an alternating solution in sentence three and four. By this, the author not only provides students a second chance but also maintain the thesis statement convincing. The last sentence is a “so what” statement which explains the main purpose of this email.

In this introduction, the author does not include a thesis statement since it’s not a formal writing. Nevertheless, the author’s conceding technique is significantly outstanding, and I feel I can adapt the same strategy in my research paper. In a good introduction, a conceding statement always exists. It is hard to write a conceding statement without weakening the thesis; nonetheless, a well-written conceding statement will make readers feel the author is methodically organized.