When you sit down to work on your introduction, it's really important to think about it as a roadmap to your entire argument. There's a very formulaic way to say what you're going to say. You start with your purpose and description, and then you summarize your key argumentative points, that's it. Your first paragraph is your paper in miniature. And as a roadmap, it tells your readers exactly what you're writing about, the description, what their destination is, your purpose, and how you're going to get there, your summary points. They know exactly what to expect as they read, and they already start to subconsciously buy into your argument. You're beginning to control the reading experience and the results you want to obtain by providing this very clear roadmap. Understanding that the introduction is a roadmap for your reader makes the process of writing that introduction much easier. We know that the first sentence or two must describe what we're talking about and your purpose. We've already got a draft of that sentence from our work on the scaffold. The purpose of this memo is to purpose a new specialization to Coursera on communicating effectively with business writing, design, and presentation. Is that a little clunky? Sure, but you'll have plenty of time to revise it later. We're getting started, and we're dealing with our purpose. Later, in module four I'm going to give you lots of tips and tricks for self-revision. And then we can really get into honing these sentences. For now, we'll take this as an acceptable draft of our first sentence, because it addresses our purpose. >> Having a clear purpose is important for designers. I call it a portal or a target. When my audience looks at whatever it is I've worked on, I want them to know right where to go to start. I don't want any confusion about an entry point so I always think about a good target or a good portal. A good design absolutely depends on that. >> Now, let's get back to work. I know from my outline that I still have to deal with target market as a part of my description. Also, I haven't named the specialization yet in the memo so I'll do that right up front too. I'll say Effective Communication, Mastering Business Writing, Graphic Design, and Successful Presentation targets busy professionals who want to improve their writing, design, and presentation skills. The first sentence states my purpose. And the second sentence describes what I'm writing about, what the specialization is. We are only two sentences in, and our reader knows the where and the why of our memo. We've wasted no time. Next, the roadmap formula for the introduction tells me that my next sentences in my document should summarize the main points that I'm going to make in the body paragraphs. I know that the three points I need to make after the opening sentences in my introduction are that this specialization is one, about students presenting their best professional selves. Two, that it meets a market need, and three, that is has learning benefits. So, I might continue writing the introduction with something like, we are particularly excited about this project because we believe it fills a clear market need, provides clear learning outcome for students, and is about much more. Wait a minute, I just had an idea. This specialization really teaches business critical skills, and that's a better way to say learning outcomes. So I think I'll go back and edit that right here. We are particularly excited about this project because we believe it fills a clear market need and teaches business critical skills. Then I'll get in the third point. Although it seems to address fairly straightforward skills, this specialization is about much more. It's about success. It's about our students achieving job success by learning how to present their best professional selves in the workplace. All right, we've written a first draft of our paragraph. It's not perfect, but all the basic elements are there. We've jumped right in with our purpose, and I've outlined the basics of the argument I'm going to flesh out in the body paragraphs. My reader knows exactly what this memo is about. You might also notice that since this is a pitch memo, the first paragraph is very benefit driven. If you were writing an informational memo, say a competitive analysis or industry research paper, you might not focus on the benefits. But you would focus on the three main findings of your research or your analysis. The basic principles stay the same no matter what kind of document you're writing. Start with your purpose and description of what you're writing about and provide a quick summary of your most important points. Roadmap everything for your audience. Also, keep in mind at this stage we're writing our first draft. We don't have to get too hung up on fine tuning our word choice yet or the fact that this paragraph is too long. How do I know it's too long? It looks too long. I'm not too worried about that now. The important part of this step of the process is to get the pieces of your argument on the page where you want them. Then I'll give you specific revision techniques. And then as an optional peer review, I'm going to give you this draft of our first paragraph and give you a chance to edit my writing. When you get to the capstone, you'll see my finalized version, and you'll be able to compare your writing with mine. In the next video, we'll move on to topic sentences. And I'll talk about how they provide a signpost for both you and your reader. And then after that, we'll flesh out an entire paragraph.
