Your introductory paper and the short introductions accompanying each paper included in the
Portfolio
Introductory paper:
Length: roughly 8-10 pages
Its task: To introduce and elaborate a theme, a connecting thread, or an overarching “big idea” or
question. This question will connect the papers you’ve selected both to one another and to your more
general experiences in the program. These papers are your favorites, and they (along with other work you
may want to include that you’ve begun or have been working on) provide landmarks from which you can
create an intellectual map of the territory you’ve been discovering.
Some questions to think about and discuss in the Introduction for reader(s) of your Portfolio
Introduction (and for developing your theme/thread)
What is the source of this theme? Was it in a course? If so, what course or courses provoked you to see
this theme or thread?
Was it a pre-program interest? If so, how has work across the courses (those of and beyond the selected
papers you’re using) affected your frame of reference with respect to this theme or thread?
Was it the very act of research or paper writing that sparked the question or issue? Or, have you seen a
theme or question emerge from your reading and work?
What about the papers that you selected contributes to the theme or question you’ve posed/developed?
Has some of the scholarship that you’ve encountered treated this theme? How do the writers that you’ve
encountered see and contribute to the theme? What discussions of related issues by scholars you’ve
encountered make reference to your theme—what sorts of references? And do they do this directly or
indirectly?
The Introduction should include references to the work of others that touches on the question,
thread, or theme that you’ve discovered, developed, or extracted.
It’s very likely that you’ll be joining some ongoing conversations, and reading among them and invoking
the thinking that is part of them. You should refer to these conversations (the “literature”) and apply it as
part of this introductory discussion.
The Introduction should include general explanations for the inclusion of the papers in the
portfolio.
How does each contribute?
Do they connect with one another in significant ways—in ways that amplify the theme, thread, or
question—or do they, in their individual ways—reveal distinct facets of the theme, thread, or question to
consider?
The Introduction may include new questions raised—questions that relate to the one where your
focus lies. You may not have considered these questions in any of your other work, yet; they may have
arisen from the very pursuit of asking the one(s) you have posed.
The short introductions
These are, fundamentally, to be abstracts of the papers included. Writing such things is a good skill to
have—it requires summary and attention to the reader in the sense of having control over what you want
him or her to attend to.
Often abstracts are associated with research reports, but they’re not exclusive to that genre, and they work
effectively for the sorts of research papers—examining the way a particular question is addressed, for
example—you’re crafting.
Here are some resources about abstracts and writing them.
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/abstract/
An abstract provides a distillation of sorts—something between a “freeze-dried” version of the paper and
what a movie “trailer” is. Just before readers dive into your paper, reading the abstract will tell them what
you want them to know about what they’ll find in the paper, and what it’s your intention to have them
come out with.
Also helpful in understanding how to write your own abstract will be looking more carefully at those you
encounter in your research. Look for and read the abstracts to scholarly papers or chapters that have
them. Makes good sense, yes?
And, as you look over the papers from your other classes—along with comments—you might think about
what distillations of them might look like.