Tuff-Stuff - Cause and Effect - Jay's 3-Part Model for Introductory Paragraph
Jay’s 3-Part Model:
Intro Paragraph for Tuff-Stuff Cause and Effect Essay
Let’s get off to a good start. Here we want to capture the interest of our readers. We will want to provide a little background information that leads to our thesis.
I suggest using Jay’s Three-Part Introductory Paragraph:
• Background - try to share a TIME and PLACE in your life. Let the reader in on what was happening in your life at the time of your life-changing event. Can you capture a moment? (Jay suggests 5-6 sentences)
• Transition - explain WHY THIS TOPIC IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. Think CAUSE and EFFECT. You want to set your reader up for your thesis. What changed things for you? ( Jay suggests 3-4 sentences)
• Thesis - Create that one meaningful statement that combines your subject and the controlling idea.
Here is what I did for “T-Bird Up in Smoke”:
1. Background – I tried to take my readers back in time to my tuff-stuff cause and effect experience. I wanted to bring them in with something interesting. I focused on two things:
• setting
• details
(setting:) When I was in my twenties, I didn’t have all that much going for me. No money. No girlfriend. I didn’t really like my job. I was a lonely guy.
(details:) But, I had a car. It wasn’t just any car. It was a classic 1965 Ford Thunderbird. It was painted cherry red, and it had a 428 cubic-inch V8 engine underneath the hood. When I drove down the street, windows rattled and heads turned, and you know what? Everybody knew who I was.
2. Transition – There are important reasons why this experience affected me. I changed. Here I focused on two things:
• cause
• effect
( Jay’s Tip: You DECIDE. What’s more important CAUSES or EFFECTS. You can write about ONE, or the OTHER, or BOTH)
( cause:) It was like this car was everything to me. It made me who I was. I spent more time and energy thinking about it than I thought about myself.
(effect:) But one day, I learned an important lesson the hard way. By T-Bird caught fire, and there was nothing I could do to save it. Have you ever heard of “seeing the light?” Sometimes it takes an abrupt, unexpected moment – like totally out of the blue – for a person to see something he/she has been ignoring for a long time. Suddenly, things can come into focus.
3. Thesis – What’s your main point. What did you learn from your experience?
The day I watched my T-bird go up in flames, I knew it was time to change my priorities in life.
This is what my introductory paragraph looks like when COPY and PASTE the three parts together:
When I was in my twenties, I didn’t have all that much going for me. No money. No girlfriend. I didn’t really like my job. I was a lonely guy. But, I had a car. It wasn’t just any car. It was a classic 1965 Ford Thunderbird. It was painted cherry red, and it had a 428 cubic-inch V8 engine underneath the hood. When I drove down the street, windows rattled and heads turned, and you know what? Everybody knew who I was. It was like this car was everything to me. It made me. I spent more time and energy thinking about it than I thought about myself. But one day, I learned an important lesson the hard way. My car burned to the ground, and there was nothing I could do to save it. Have you ever heard of “seeing the light?” Sometimes it takes an abrupt, unexpected moment – like totally out of the blue – for a person to see something he/she has been ignoring for a long time. Suddenly, things can come into focus. The day I watched my T-bird go up in flames, I knew it was time to change my priorities in life.
Again, there is no one way to write an introductory paragraph, but I hope Jay’s Three-Part Model helps.
This is going to be fun. You will see.
Paz,
JL