Can't organize thoughts like a normal person!

[vvvexation]

Gah. I've gotten tripped up by the very first paragraph of this damn paper. Writing introductions is always bloody difficult because you have to make so many sweeping generalizations that sound platitudinal and don't really sit well the moment you stop to think about them--but I don't seem to be able to do what some people do and start in the

Comments

[tsgeisel]

I've forgotten how I used to get around this problem, but a solution I know I didn't use occurs to me...

What is your paper about?

Use the introduction to explain to someone who doesn't know what the paper is about why you're writing it, and why you're making your particular arguements. The first draft doesn't have to be pretty - it just has to be enough so that you have something to take you into the middle stuff. You can revise the intro later.

Picture this:

This paper is a comparitive analaysis of philosopher's through history, with regards to their beverage consumption. Through personal letters and attributive accounts in various publications, I plan to show that Immanuel Kant was a real pissant, who was very rarely stable.
[...]

Hope that helps.

[vvvexation]

It helps some. The problem I'm having in this particular case is that I don't have much of a thesis to defend, so I'm trying to avoid saying "this is what I plan to prove" and just stick with things like "as everyone already knows, Heidegger was a boozy beggar," and hope that these statements don't get scrutinized too closely.

[marmaladious]

Just write a list of good-sounding sentences, and roll dice to figure out which order they go in. If you fail at least you can just blame the dice.

[tshuma]

When I got stuck like this I would write my conclusion out as cogently as possible. I needed to know what I was trying to prove. Then I could figure out where to start by deciding what my audience already knew. The introduction combined generalizing what they already knew (for which I provided references in the first paragraph or so) with what I intended to prove. The body of the paper just gave the fleshed out the supporting statements.

[vvvexation]

Yeah...the problem I have with that approach is that I usually don't know exactly what my thesis is until I'm half done writing.

[adamchristopher]

I have to go in order too. Though in my case, I often get great intros and conclusions that come to me and just have to pour out, but then I'm left stressing over the middle content.