Writing Workshop: The introduction - essay 1 - 2013

Instructions: Pearl made it unnecessarily difficult for herself and for the children to deal with
Beck’s departure

Introductory ideas

Most families go through the painful, sometimes unexpected experience of losing a member in unhappy
circumstances. These losses, whether they are due to somebody’s death or sudden departure, have the effect of
disrupting / upsetting the life of their members as they knew it. These are typically trying times for the family and call
for all the strength, caring and good judgment of its members, so that the disruption is as temporary as possible and
everyone involved is able to eventually resume their lives as best they can. These are times in which the family needs
to muster/summon all their courage, serenity and good sense, to support each other, particularly those who are
more feeble and vulnerable. The experience of a loss in the family can, however, be so trying for some family
members, even for the older, more experienced ones, that they may find themselves unable to react in a way that
helps them and those they love to deal with these unhappy circumstances, promoting /fostering healing and
recovery. This inability can, indeed, cause undue / additional pain to the whole family. The novel Dinner at the
Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler presents us with such a situation. Beck, the father of the Tull family,
unexpectedly abandons his wife and their three small children with no explanation or promise to help them to keep
going with their life. Pearl, his wife, unable to accept having been abandoned, shuts herself in, refuses to ask for help
and deprives herself and her children of the help, support and understanding they all needed. Pearl´s behavior
confines herself and her children to a painful, isolated/ solitary experience as they try to come to terms with Beck´s
abandonment.

Read the introduction carefully and work with the following analysis guideline:

1. What are the functions that the writer of this introduction is trying to fulfill? Does s/he do this effectively?

2. Can you identify the different stages the introduction goes through?

3. What are the linguistic markers that help you identify these boundaries? For ex. the change in method of
development (change in the subject) in ‘The novel Dinner…’ alerts the reader that there is a probably a
change in what the introduction is about to do. Actually, what happens is that the text is about to go through
a transition into the source reading that will be analyzed.

Try to identify other linguistic markers that identify these changes. Don´t worry about using specific
terminology, just try to explain what happens in your own words.

4. Do the introductory generalizations refer to experience of the world that you can relate to, find relevant to
your experience, find general enough to seem applicable to a general enough audience?

5. What are the key ideas discussed in the introductory generalizations? Underline or highlight them.

6. Are these ideas elaborated (through restatement, exemplification, specification)? Are you satisfied with the
degree of elaboration? Would you have liked to know a little more about one of these ideas? Which? Why?

7. Do you find that the connection between the ideas in each clause flow cohesively into one another? Explicitly
signal the logical connection that holds as in:

Most families go through the painful, sometimes unexpected experience of losing a member in unhappy circumstances. These losses [‘losses’
picks up the Rheme of the preceding clause and elaborates it, by specifying/exemplifying it], whether they are due to somebody’s death or
sudden departure, have the effect of disrupting / upsetting the life of their members as they knew it. [the Rheme: ‘have the effect of...’ makes
reference to the ‘consequences’ of the losses]

As you analyze the connection between the clauses and the ideas included in them, try to determine if the
generalizations unfold logically or if new/disconnected ideas are suddenly introduced.

8. Once the transition into the source text is made, are we given background information on the novel that
helps us to locate ourselves with respect to the relevant information in the novel? Once you read the thesis
statement, would you say that this information (about Beck´s departure and Pearl´s reaction) is, indeed,
relevant? Or would you say we are provided with information that does not really help us to position
ourselves with respect to the relevant events in the novel?

9. Would you say that this background information replicates at a more specific/concrete level the more
abstract, general information that was included in the introductory generalizations? For ex:

introductory generalizations background information to set the scene

…sometimes unexpected experience of losing a member in Beck, the father of the Tull family, unexpectedly abandons his
unhappy circumstances. These losses, whether they are due to wife and their three small children with no explanation or
somebody’s death or sudden departure, have the effect of promise to help them to keep going with their life.
disrupting / upsetting the life of their members as they knew it.

Find more information in the introductory generalizations that is paralleled when the background information is
given.

10. Does the background information, in turn, effectively prepare for the thesis that is announced?

introductory generalizations background information to set the scene thesis

…sometimes unexpected experience of Beck, the father of the Tull family, -

losing a member in unhappy
circumstances. These losses, whether they
are due to somebody’s death or sudden
departure, have the effect of disrupting /
upsetting the life of their members as they
knew it.
unexpectedly abandons his wife and their
three small children with no explanation or
promise to help them to keep going with
their life.

what information anticipates this key
idea in the thesis?
what information anticipates this key idea
in the thesis?
Pearl´s behavior confines
herself and her children to a
painful, isolated/ solitary
experience as they try to come
to terms with Beck´s
abandonment.

11. Does the thesis statement clearly announce the key idea(s) that will be developed? Underline or highlight
them.

12. Does the thesis statement give a clear idea of how the rest of the essay will be structured? Tentatively outline
the essay based on what the thesis statement anticipates.

13. Is the vocabulary used throughout the introduction to refer to ideas that repeat themselves in the
introductory generalizations, in the background information on the source text and in the thesis statement
unnecessarily repetitive? Is there an attempt to express similar ideas in varied ways?

14. Do you have other comments or suggestions that would improve this introduction?

Be ready to hand in this guideline upon request on Friday 5th. You may work in pairs, if you wish.
Language IV – Workshop on introduction section to essays - 2011
Ideas that we start out from (and towards which we are guiding our reader):
Pearl made it unnecessarily difficult for herself and for the children to deal with Beck’s departure
reference to painful / unexpected events such as the loss of a
close relative because of their death or departure in unhappy
circumstances
these events upset, unsettle, disrupt family life as we know it
they call for all our strength, clear judgment, experience / we
need to collect / to muster all our strength, our serenity and clear
thinking so that the disruption is as temporary as possible / to be
able to eventually resume/ go on with our lives as best we can
the experience can, however, be so trying/hard that we may not
be able to react in the best way / in a way that promotes our own
healing and the healing of those we love
inability often causes/ can cause additional / undue pain for the
whole family.
a) the novel …. presents us with such a situation.
Alternatively:
b) The novel … tells us about the very difficult times the Tull
family has to go through after they are abandoned by
We try to begin our discussion at point in which we can expect our audience to easily relate to the
information we are include based on their experience of the world.
We are becoming more specific, step by step, focusing on the ‘angle’ of the more general topic (the
departure of a member of a family) and narrowing it down, leading our reader towards the key,
focus idea of our thesis (how these painful circumstances are dealt with by the members of the
family).
We try to present the situation based on our experience of the world which we can anticipate will
probably be shared by our reader: how to best deal with these difficulties.
As we know we need to anticipate in more general terms the fact that Pearl did not actually react in
a way that helped her and her children heal and resume their lives, we need to address the
alternative scenario: that of people who find the experience too challenging, so difficult to deal with
that their reaction brings more pain and hurts those involved.
At this point we are reflecting the situation that our thesis expresses: the painful departure of a
family member / the need to promote healing to be able to resume the new life circumstances / the
failure or inability of some family members to do so / the impact this can have on the family
Here we introduce the shift towards the situation in the novel that is the object of our analysis. We
mention the title (in italics if it is a novel, between double quotes if it is a story, and the name of the
author).
a) We make sure that the recapitulating noun, in this case ‘situation’ has a very clear referent
in the immediately preceding information (The experience can, however be so trying/hard
that we may not be able to react in the best way / in a way that promotes our own healing
and the healing of those we love). This is very important as we have been discussing several
ideas in our intro. To just say: This is the situation… can be confusing if the immediately
preceding ideas do not exactly replicate (just that in more general terms) the situation we
are about to discuss in the essay.
 their father and are at the mercy of their mother who is
having a very hard time to accept what has happened.
Beck, the father of the Tull family, departs unexpectedly and
leaves his wife and 3 small children with no explanation or
promise to help them to keep going with their life.
Pearl, his wife, unable to accept having been abandoned shuts
herself out, refuses to seek /ask for help and deprives herself and
her children of the help, support and understanding they all
needed.
In fact, P´s behavior confines herself and her children to a painful,
disorienting and isolated experience as they try to come to terms
with Beck´s abandonment.
Pearl made it unnecessarily difficult for herself and for the children to deal with Beck’s departure
A) Introductory generalizations
b) If we are not sure this is the case, we´d better try to state the idea explicitly (in a sentence,
not just by means of a recapitulating noun) to make sure we are being absolutely clear. In
this case, we will be expressing in a very compact, selective manner the ‘selective
background information’ that will help the reader bring to mind exactly the information
about the novel s/he needs to recall to make sense of the discussion we are about to
announce in the thesis statement. See below (background info)
We now provide or complete (if we choose option b) above) the selective background information
on the novel. Given the thesis, we need to mention:
- B’s abandonment
- P´s reaction
- The impact on herself and her children
This is the information on the story that we need to activate in our readers’ mind to facilitate the
reading and understanding of the idea we are about to announce.
We announce the thesis idea very explicitly. It should include all the key ideas we had underlined in
the thesis idea we were given: Pearl / herself and her children/ unnecessarily difficult (confines … to
a painful ….experience)/ Beck´s abandonment (as they try to ….)
The thesis statement anticipates both the content (what we will be discussing) and the organization
of the essay (what ideas will, most likely be taken up as the text unfolds and in what order)
Reference to painful / unexpected events such as the loss of a close relative because of their death or departure in unhappy circumstances

these events upset, unsettle, disrupt family life as we know it

they call for all our strength, clear judgment, experience / we need to collect / to muster all our strength, our serenity and clear thinking so that the disruption is as
temporary as possible / to be able to eventually resume/ go on with our lives as best we can (this idea anticipates what we can expect people to do, but what Pearl did
NOT do)

the experience can, however, be so trying/hard that we (or some family members) may not be able to react in the best way / in a way that promotes our own healing
and the healing of those we love

inability often causes/ can cause additional / undue pain for the whole family.

B) Transition to the situation in the novel

the novel …. presents us with such a SITUATION (the whole situation)

Beck, the father of the Tull family, departs unexpectedly and leaves his wife and 3 small children with no explanation or promise to help them to keep going with their life.

Pearl, his wife, unable to accept having been abandoned shuts herself out, refuses to seek /ask for help and deprives herself and her children of the help, support and
understanding they all needed.

C) Thesis statement

In fact, P´s behavior confines herself and her children to a painful, disorienting and isolated experience as they try to come to terms with Beck´s abandonment.