In an introduction, I usually start off with a hook that catches the reader’s attention and then connect this hook into the general idea of what the paper will be about while introducing the name of the novel, author, publisher and publishing date etc. I then give a background of the novel as it relates to my topic and then state my thesis (the argument of this paper) as well as my so what to show how the message of my paper will connect to the real world.

In a conclusion, I usually start off by summarizing my overall argument/thesis/main points. I then talk a little more about the so-what aspect of my argument and expand this to how it is important to understand the argument of the paper because it can relate to the real world at large.

The piece of writing I looked at is an article from the New York Times titled “New York City School Suspensions Fell 17% in 2014-15, Officials Say” written by Elizabeth A. Harris. Because this is a newspaper article, it is trying to get straight to the point and thus the introduction is pretty short, however it is still there. The introduction states, “The number of suspensions in New York City public schools dropped about 17 percent last year, the de Blasio administration said on Friday, as it announced steps aimed at helping lower that figure even further. The number of arrests made by school safety agents fell as well.” The short introduction definitely grabs the reader’s attention because it gets straight to the point of the article. Considering that the reader is probably interested in this subject since s/he clicked on the article, s/he now wants to continue reading to find out how this drop occurred and what principles were put in place in the public schools to render such a dramatic shift. This short sentence even hints that it will discuss these points because it states “as it announced steps aimed at helping lower that figure even further.” The reader is going to be curious about these steps and will thus want to keep reading to find out more specifics. Also, the last sentence of the introduction is there to entice the reader keep reading even more. This sentence is not part of the original title, but still relates to the topic and thus the reader is probably also interested in learning more about this topic. Because the reader has now read this hook sentence s/he will want to keep reading to find out more about both topics.

I think that because this is an introduction for a newspaper article it makes sense that it would be very straightforward and short. I think it is effective for this type of writing and I can use how it gives the reader a clear, specific idea of what the article is going to talk about. However, for my paper I will need to give more background and summary as well as a more defined thesis and so-what.