1A Lesson Plan: Writing Introductions and Transitions

 

Part One. Introductions

 

Introductions to avoid:

One. Clichés:

1. In today’s society . . .
2. In society today . . .
3. In today’s world . . .
4. Since the dawn of time . . .
5. Since the dawn of Man . . .
6. Since the time of Adam and Eve . . .
7. Ever since man emerged from the Womb of Unconscious . . .
8. Ever since man emerged from the Cave . . .
9. As we evolved from our caveman ancestors . . .

 

Two. Spill the beans

 

In this essay I will tell you the four meanings of the title Holes. These meanings are ________________, __________________, ____________________, and ____________________________.

 

Three.  Avoid dictionary definition

 

According to Merriam Webster’s English Dictionary, the word “salubrious” means healthy.

 

Effective Introductions

 

Extended Definition of a Term That Is Important to the Understanding of Your Essay

 

An extended definition is a personal, custom-made definition that consists of a single-sentence definition followed by distinguishing characteristics.

 

Examples

Learned helplessness is a delusion in which people feel powerless to do something when in fact they have the means and the tools to do the very thing they’ve convinced themselves is impossible. This disparity between what they think they cannot do and what they are capable of achieving is the result of training their mind to believe in failure. Their delusion of personal helplessness is born from three major personality defects. The first is the fear of assuming responsibility, which the Helpless will have to take on if they show to the world and themselves that they are capable human beings. The second is the reinforced delusion that results from a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the Helpless set the stage for failure and then feel vindicated once they do in fact fail. The third is the attention and pity the Helpless enjoy when they rely on others to bail them out of their predicaments.

Sadly, a legacy of learned helplessness has afflicted the Yelnats family in the novel Holes in which our protagonist and hero Stanley Yelnats must empower himself in order to not only free himself as a lowly victim at the mercy of a long-held curse but to free his family from the dark shadow cast by the moral failure of Elya, the pig-stealing great-great grandfather. The evolution of Stanley Yelnats not only points to his redemption, but to the redemption of all of those who languish under the malaise of learned helplessness. Stanley’s evolution from helpless victim to empowered hero, as it is dramatized in the novel, consists of ____________________________, ______________________________, _______________________________, and _________________________________. 

 

Two. Personal Anecdote

In the summer of 2003 my wife Carrie and I were walking back from the brunch buffet at the Sheraton Inn in Kauai where I had just ingested a 5,000-calorie breakfast of hash brown potatoes, a large silver platter of turkey sausage patties, a mountain of scrambled eggs with gobs of melted cheddar cheese,  macadamia nut pancakes slathered with real maple syrup, French toast made with Hawaiian sweet bread, blueberry blintzes, and hot, gooey cinnamon pecan rolls—all washed down with several tall pitchers of freshly-squeezed orange juice.

After breakfast as I strutted my 259-pounds outside the buffet room and sauntered past a hotel window, I saw the reflection of an unsightly, portly gentleman. He was dressed in safari shorts and a turquoise tank top, which sported the striking image of the iconic sea turtle. The bloated gentleman I gazed upon looked like the stereotype of an overfed American.

Squinting my eyes, I walked closer toward the middle-aged fat man and I was overcome by the shock and anxiety that the reflection was not some other guy for whom I could judge with gleeful ridicule, but was in fact me. I was that dude, the type of person that I had mocked and scorned most of my life.

This was a huge moment for me, what literary people might call an “epiphany” or a “revelation,” and I was fortunate to have experienced it. For most people are denied, or deny themselves, such moments of clarity. Probably something like 99% of the human race walk around Planet Earth with their heads up their butts and this is how they die—never knowing what the hell is really going on. But on that summer day in Kauai when I saw that the fat man in the window was in fact me, my head uncorked from my butt and I was able to see reality for what it really was. And this reality—me being a chubster—was totally unacceptable. Something had to be done. And thus began my journey to healthy eating from which I’ve never looked back.

The moment of clarity is for Stanley Yelnats the realization that his great-great grandfather’s curse need not afflict his family for all eternity. There is in fact a way out of the curse and as the novel shows the freedom from this curse entails four major steps, which include _____________________________, __________________________________, ________________________________, and __________________________________.

 

 

Three. Between Your Body Paragraphs Vary Your Transitions

 

accordingly  also anyway besides certainly consequently finally furthermore hence however incidentally  indeed instead likewise

meanwhile moreover nevertheless next  nonetheless now otherwise similarly still then thereafter therefore thus undoubtedly

Transitional phrases can perform the same function: 
 

in addition in contrast for example for instance

of course as a result  in other words as a result