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French dissertation issue

Hello everybody,
I'm currently in the process of writing my dissertation, and whilst I have a clear idea of what I want to write/research. I'm not 100% what I should write in my introduction. My title is "A representation of anti-Semitism in French Cinema". I know what I want to write for the vast majority of my project, but as I said, I have absolutely no idea what to write in my introduction. Suggestions would be most welcome!

Thanks

Richard

Reply 1

Anna Schoon

Original post by dread64

Your introduction should do three things:

a) state what you are going to write about - in your case: a representation of anti-Semitism in French cinema;
b) show briefly why this is important / interesting / topical etc.
c) outline how you are going to tackle the topic.

a) and b) are interchangeable in order; c) must always come third.

When writing the introduction, you should pretend that your reader does not know the title of your dissertation. This will help avoid an abrupt beginning.

How about leaving the writing of your introduction for the moment, until you have actually written the body of your dissertation? This is what I always used to do as I found it a lot easier - mainly because of section c) in the introduction. Having written the body will also mean that your ideas are a lot clearer in your head, which means that your section b) will be more interesting as well!

One final point: never, ever, give a personal viewpoint or opinion in your introduction - that's what the conclusion is for!

Hope this helps. Good luck!