ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Examples of Introductions for the Research Paper

In your introduction, you should begin by giving a general idea of your topic. You may begin with historical background information (if it is relevant), the impact your author has made on literature, etc. Throughout the introduction, you should slowly begin moving from general ideas to more specific ones. The final statement in your introduction should be your thesis statement. In general, you shouldn’t have any quotes in your introduction. However, if you find some “interesting” information to get your reader hooked, you may use it (just use it sparingly!). Here are three examples for you:

Example #1:

It is the early to middle 1900’s. The top Hollywood movie stars are Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, and Bette Davis. The hottest young star of this time period is, of course, Shirley Temple. What do each of these people have in common? They are all movie stars—white movie stars. Although the black slave has been emancipated for quite some time, there are very few high-profile black role models during these years—male or female. African-American people still experience racism, poverty, and social rejection by whites. These negative aspects all contribute to the black experience, and Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye depicts rather well the black experience of the early to middle 1900’s.

Example #2:

Walls are built to keep out the unwanted. Walls are built to separate, divide, or compartmentalize. Walls are built to isolate what is not desired to be seen. A wall of oppression swept across the great nation of America, enslaving a culture of people whom some viewed as inhuman. One African-American female author, Gloria Naylor, has created literary works that help society realize and appreciate the uniqueness and humanness of America’s oppressed black culture. Unlike the bastard birth of Brewster Place in Naylor’s story The Women of Brewster Place, her portrayals of black women were deliberate and defined, reflecting the proud heritage of black culture in American society. Individually, the female characters in Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place represent a number of character types, but, collectively, they portray a large segment of black women living in American during the mid-to-late twentieth century, searching for identity and self-worth.

Example #3:

For many individuals living in America, the word “geisha” has an attached meaning. Many people may mistakenly view geishas as simply overly-dressed prostitutes or nothing more than fantasy. It is all too easy to group geishas into a stereotypical view and visualize them as being inhuman, or even almost supernatural. However, the struggles and challenges faced by many geishas were brought to light by the writer Arthur Golden. Through his words, readers find a connection with these women and a concern for their histories that was not present before. In his first novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden explores the mind of a young girl as she struggles to discover her own identity – not only as a geisha, but as a unique individual.