Opening Paragraph Assignment

History of Popular Music 1; Prof. Jenkins

Due Date: Session 23 (submit via email by 11:59pm—anything sent after that time will be marked late
and drop 10% per day late)

Purpose: This assignment should contribute to the following:

Knowledge: This assignment will demonstrate your ability to write an engaging opening to your
term paper.

Skills: 1) writing a catchy opening that grabs the reader’s attention; 2) preparing the reader for the
analysis and historical insight that will appear in the body of the paper; 3) writing engaging and
persuasive prose that convinces your reader to read the rest of the paper.

“Real World” Application: Getting people’s attention is key. A strong opening gambit makes
people more receptive to your ideas.

Task: This is the next step in constructing your term paper. Write a strong opening paragraph for your
term paper. The paragraph must include the title of the song, the name of the artist, and your thesis
statement. The thesis statement should be clear but concise. The first sentence (really the whole opening
paragraph) should be engaging and encourage the reader to want to read your paper. The paragraph
should “preview” (at least a bit) what is to come in the full paper.

Grading Rubric

Dimension Exceeds Meets Expectations Moving Toward Needs Substantial

Expectations (4) (3) Expectations (2) Improvement (1)
Opening Opening sentence Opening sentence Opening sentence Opening sentence is
Sentence is creative, is engaging and is adequate but a confusing and/or overly
engaging, and intriguing. It bit dull or cliched. formulaic; it provides little
memorable. It establishes the tone It gives some sense of the tone of the
places the reader of the paper well. sense of the tone paper.
immediately in the of the paper.
“feel” of the paper.
Preview of The paragraph The paragraph The paragraph The paragraph offers no
Issues offers a brief but provides a decent gives some detail real sense of what the paper
clear overview of sense of what will about what will be will cover; it is not
the things that will be discussed but is discussed but in a engaging.
be discussed in the not so clear as to its relatively unclear
paper and why it is importance; it is at manner; it is not
important; it least mildly very engaging.
engages the engaging.
reader’s interest.
Thesis The thesis The thesis There is a thesis There is no real thesis
Statement statement previews statement previews statement, but it is statement.
the interpretation the interpretation; it not entirely clear
of the paper; it is is mostly clear but what it is or why
clear, intriguing, doesn’t stress the it is important.
and provides a importance of the
sense of why it is issues.
 important to
examine these
issues.
Rhetoric and Ideas presented in Mostly logical flow Some sense of Too disjointed in moving
Flow a logical manner; of ideas with some flow but a bit from idea to idea; not very
clear and gaps; mostly disjointed; lacking persuasive; no clear path
persuasive prose; persuasive in from point to point
smooth transitions argumentation with persuasion/missed
from point to point perhaps a missed opportunities;
opportunity; mostly rough transitions
good transitions
Writing 0-1 grammatical 2-5 relatively Grammatical Many grammatical errors
Conventions errors; well-formed minor grammatical errors make the making the paper difficult
sentences with a errors; decent paragraph to comprehend; no sources
good variety of sentences with relatively difficult cited
sentence some variety of to read; only one
structures; two structure; two source is cited
decent sources are sources are cited
cited in a manner but one is not that
that allows me to useful or is
find them redundant