writing an INtroduction

an introduction should

• Grab the attention of the reader
• Act as a road map
• Demonstrate your approach to the question
• Indicate the focus of the essay

the question

1) Discuss how two poems use poetic techniques to convey a powerful message.

Strong theme= Easier links= Better essay

for example

• Poem 1- 'Nothing's Changed'
• Subject (what happens)
• Theme (deeper issues)- Belonging, racism, inequality, anger, injustice 
• Poetic techniques- Alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition 
• sentence length, stanza structure, imagery, metaphor, contrast

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• Poem 2- 'Island Man'
• Subject (what happens)
• Theme (deeper issues) Loneliness, belonging, cultural divide
• Poetic techniques- Onomatopoeia, alliteration contrast, metaphor 
• stanza structure, repetition

what do they have in common?

• Theme- BELONGING
• Poetic techniques- 
• Onomatopoeia, alliteration contrast, metaphor, 
• stanza structure, repetition

what is different?

• Author
• Subject (what happens)

structuring your introduction

• Hook (grab the readers attention)
• Introduce the author and the text
• Discuss the theme/ issue
• Map out the essay
• (there should be no surprises)

Writing a hook

• Need to find something interesting in the poems
• The introductions I read were really boring
• A good hook will make the essay easier to write

Community is a key component of human existence. Friendship provides inspiration, and equality permits the confidence for emotional expression. A sense of national identity is one of the most basic ways in which a group of people are able to share experiences, and build ideas. Unfortunately, there are those who feel that they do not belong. People whose sense of identity has been taken away from them, or is clouded. These are the outsiders.

introduce the author and the text

• Capilise the first and last name
• Only use the full name the first time
• Italicise the name of the poem
• Briefly discuss what the text is about ( not the theme)
• Introduce the tone of the text (author's emotions)

Nothing's Changed, by Tatamkhulu Afrika, is an impassioned plea for change, from a black South African in the post apartheid era. Island Man, by Grace Nicholls, is an apathetic account of a Caribbean man lost between cultures, and his struggles to cope with the daily grind of city life.

map out the essay

• What happens when, in order

Both poems, use contrast, structure and alliteration, to create vivid pictures of life on the outskirts of society.

Community is a key component of human existence. Friendship provides inspiration, and equality permits the confidence for emotional expression. A sense of national identity is one of the most basic ways in which a group of people are able to share experiences, and build ideas. Unfortunately, there are those who feel that they do not belong. People whose sense of identity has been taken away from them, or is clouded. These are the outsiders. Nothing's Changed, by Tatamkhulu Afrika, is an impassioned plea for change, from a black South African in the post apartheid era. Island Man, a poem by Grace Nicholls, is an apathetic account of a Caribbean man lost between cultures, and his struggles to cope with the daily grind of city life. Both poems, use contrast, structure and alliteration, to create vivid pictures of life on the outskirts of society.

start by

• Choosing to poems with a similiar theme
• Finding what they have in common
• and what is different
• 100-150 words
• If it's boring I won't read it

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