Final introduction of my essay

Essay Question:

‘Television is in no way a true mirror of society.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Introduction:

‘Television is a new medium. It's called a medium because nothing is well-done’- Fred Allen – the famous American comedian – said in 1950. His perceptive insight view still remains the whole value and explains why television as playing a certain role in each household nowadays has been adapting to digital era. The era is of the dramatically development of extra channels on television at the forefront of digital broadcasting. Everyone can find huge information of every field, attain higher education of every subject and get knowledge of society outside the world through those various channels. Television reflects the growing complexity of modern life about the different lifestyles, the challenges families as well as individual face. Someone’s life on television could present for their lives, for either our lives or one class in society. We know a real world in the manner that is both experience in our lives and looking at something through television programmes. Obviously, everything about social values from micro angle to macro one is reflected on television. This leads to a question whether realities of life people watch on television is true or not. This essay critically examines how far we can believe on what we watch and which aspects of society is mirrored on television honestly. It is very useful for our point of view to consider, solve an issue in the real life in which it is a little bit different from life on television before making a right decision carefully.

(245 words)

I found this information and references here:

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/introductions.htm

http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/essay/4bii.html

http://www.bvws.org.uk/405alive/info/quotes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Allen

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/unreality-tv-the-final-frontier-515650.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4000000/newsid_4001900/4001991.stm

I have changed my references after studying Steve's lesson of how to write References and citations today.

References:

1. Fred Allen, 1950, ‘Quotes on television’, viewed 30 July 2008, <http://www.bvws.org.uk/405alive/info/quotes.html>

2. Wikipedia, ‘Fred Allen’, viewed 30 July 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Allen>

3. The Independent, 2005, ‘Unreality TV: The final frontier’, viewed 30 July 2008, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/unreality-tv-the-final-frontier-515650.html>

4. Horrocks P. (Head of Television News), 2005, ‘Television News’, BBC News, viewed 30 July 2008, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4000000/newsid_4001900/4001991.stm>

My draft of introduction

Essay Question:

‘Television is in no way a true mirror of society.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

It is generally agreed that television as playing a certain role in each household nowadays has been adapting to digital era. The era is of the dramatically development of extra channels on television at the forefront of digital broadcasting. Everyone can find huge information of every field, attain higher education of every subject and get knowledge of society outside the world by watching television on those various channels. Television reflects the growing complexity of modern life about the different lifestyles, the challenges families as well as individual face. Someone’s life on television could present for their lives, for either our lives or one class in society. We know a real world in the manner that is both experience in our lives and looking at something through television programme. Obviously, everything about social values from micro angle to macro one is reflected on television. This leads to a question whether realities of life people watch on television is true or not. This essay critically examines how far we can believe on what we watch and which aspects of society is mirrored on television honestly. It is very useful for our point of view to consider or solve an issue in the real life in which it is a little bit different from life on television before making a right decision carefully.

(220 words)

Background of television

What does elevision reflect ?

Prefer the question

What is the focus of this specific essay ?

Before writing

I just read some more example before writing my own introduction. This example is very clear and useful for my essay.

Example of an essay introduction¹

Essay Question: Italy on the eve of 1860 has often been described as an unlikely nation. Why?

On the eve of 1860 the word Italy described not a nation, but a geographical area. The peninsula was split into eight separate states, all independent of one another. Economically, while the whole of Europe seemed to be surging ahead, Italy was lagging behind. At this time, Italy was seen as an unlikely nation because of the many obstacles that lay in the way of unification. The main obstacles were the dislike and distrust between the states and the "slowness of the great bulk of Italians to accept or even comprehend the idea of Italy" (Mack Smith,1968: 2). There was also a lack of planning and common goals amongst the minority of the population that supported and were prepared to fight for a unified country. This was exacerbated by the disagreement and dislike between the leaders of Il Risorgimento, the Italian independence movement.

(143 words)

background
orientation to the topic
thesis statement
outline of argument

Friday self-study: How to write a good introduction of accademic essay

A. I am doing exercise from Jim's self-study blog:

1. Looking at the information on both the websites http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/introductions.htm http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm
   

what should a good introduction contain?

• establish the context, background and/or importance of the topic
  
• indicate a problem, controversy or a gap in the field of study
• define the topic or key terms
• state of the purpose of the essay/writing
  
• provide an overview of the coverage and/or structure of the writing

2. On the University of Manchester page, look at the suggested language for different sections of the introduction. Which verb tenses are most commonly used in each section? (write down a verb tense and an example for each…)

- Establishing the importance of the topic: use simple present and present continuous, present perfect
ex:
X is an important component in the climate system, and plays a key role in Y.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the .....
In the new global economy, X has become a central issue for ......

- Establishing the importance of the topic (time frame given): simple present, present perfect or passive voice
ex:
The past decade has seen the rapid development of X in many .......
Xs are one of the most widely used groups of antibacterial agents and have been extensively used for decades to .......

- Highlighting a problem or controversy in the field of study: present perfect, present continuous, simple past
ex:
To date there has been little agreement on what ......
There is increasing concern that some Xs are being disadvantaged ......
One major issue in early X research concerned.......

- Highlighting a knowledge gap in the field of study: present perfect, simple present
ex:
So far, however, there has been little discussion about
The experimental data are rather controversial, and there is no general agreement about

- Focus and aim: future tense, simple present, simple past
ex:
This paper will review the research conducted on ......
The aim of this paper is to determine/examine ......
The aim of this study was to evaluate and validate ......

- Outline structure: simple present, present perfect or passive voice, future tense
ex:
The main questions/issues addressed in this paper are: a), b and c).
This paper has been divided into four parts. The first part deals with ....
The first section of this paper will examine ......

- Explaining keywords: future tense
ex:
While a variety of definitions of the term X have been suggested, this paper will use the definition first suggested by Smith (1968) who saw it as .......
Throughout this paper the term X will refer to/will be used to refer to .......
In this article the acronym/abbreviation XYZ will be used.


B. Another part of exercise:
http://www.englishforuniversity.com/search/label/Writing%20an%20introduction

1. What is the introduction a chance for you to do?

--> Introduce news, difficult issue, controversy, lack of good evidence, give outline of essay

2. Why do you think planning is important when you are writing an introduction?

--> I think planning is very important in introduction because you will go straight to your topic or something related to it. You will know what you should write when u have a clear plan. Moreover, you will know which information you should search before writing an introduction.

3. Look at the example essay question: "Is the present level of immigration in the United Kingdom beneficial to the country?" Read the introduction (below the plan). You should be able to see that the introduction contains all the elements from your answer to question 1 in the Section A. Also, notice the use of verb tenses.

---> We use simple present for real something , present perfect for the trend of that topic, future tense for the purpose of your essay.

4. I would like you to rewrite this introduction (to the same question) using the language suggestions from the University of Manchester website and post it on your blog by the end of this class. If you do not have a blog, write it on a separate sheet of paper to give to me by the end of class.

Essay question: "Is the present level of immigration in the United Kingdom beneficial to the country?"
Immigration is an emotive subject which is seldom out of the news. The recent rise in immigrants in the United Kingdom from the new European Union countries has refocused debate on this controversial issue. It is a topic which is difficult to explore because of the lack of hard data and the preponderance of anecdotal evidence. As already mentioned, immigration recently has largely consisted of Europeans but there is also a constant flow of migrants from other parts of the world, some of whom arrive seeking refuge from war or famine and some of whom claim asylum. This essay will attempt to explore the benefits to the UK of immigration by firstly examining the economic arguments surrounding the issue, and then by looking at the social issues involved.

This is my introduction
Immigration is a necessitous issue in each country generally and in the United Kingdom particularly. According to new research, immigration has contributed half of Britain's population growth in 10 years. The problem is how much beneficial the present level of immigration in the United Kingdom to the country as well as how to control it efficiently and limit its disadvantages in minimum. This essay will find out the level of immigration in Britain and which its aspest is beneficial for this country.