The first sentence of an Introduction of either a lecture or a reading is a General Statement that is designed to introduce a more general topic to the reader. It prepares them for the second sentence, the Thesis Statement, which tells the reader or listener the main ideas of the material. Listen and look at examples of the General Statement and Thesis Statement from exercises in Listening Skills 1 and 2 which you have already done.
Number 1
Transcript
Number one, how many people here are right-handed? Well, put up your right hand if you are.
Okay, that seems to follow the actual average, which says that about 90% of the population has their right hand as their dominant hand.
How does being left-handed, part of that minority, affect your life? We'll take a look at how being left-handed has continued to affect people's daily lives, from inconveniences to social problems they may have.
After that, we'll discuss some of the reasons why scientists believe left-handedness occurs in the first place.
- The majority of people in the world are right handed.
- The listening talks about how people's lives are affected by their left-handedness and what some of the causes of being left-handed are.
Number 2
Transcript
Last time we were talking about ecosystems and how organisms, plant or animal, all work together in a big cycle. Today we'll continue with this idea by explaining a specific type of relationship that exists within ecosystems regarding food chains and the hierarchy of who eats who, which is called a trophic relationship. That's T-R-O-P-H-I-C. Trophic. I'll use an example of marine life in this case and we'll show how, as you can guess, the big fish eat the little fish. But of course, it's a bit more complex than that.
- In an ecosystem, organisms cooperate with each other in a cycle.
- The listening talks about what trophic relationships in a food chain are and how they occur in marine ecosystems.
Number 3
Transcript
Number three, there has been a lot in the news lately about bees and the fact that they seem to be disappearing, which is a great threat to agriculture around the world. We'll discuss that in another lecture, but before we do, let's answer some basic questions about bees and what they do for us. The first question to answer is how bees assist the process of flower pollination and help plants grow. What do they give and take from the flowers themselves? A second and I think more amazing aspect is how these bees communicate. When one finds a flower, how does he tell the rest of the hive where it is?
- Recently, the disappearance of bees is threatening agriculture.
- The listening talks about how plants are helped by bees through the pollination of flowers and how bees communicate the location of flowers they find.
Number 4
Transcript
Number four, sociology and biology are two seemingly very separate disciplines and it's hard to imagine studying both together, let alone taking a course with both. Yet here we are in Sociobiology 101. Welcome.
I suppose the first thing we need to do before we begin our main lecture is discuss the nature of sociobiology and a bit of the history as to how it was created.
Once we have that background we'll be more prepared to look at some examples of the kinds of research and topics that sociobiologists work with.
- Sociology and Biology are two different subjects.
- The listening talks about how the discipline of Sociobiology was created and what Sociobiologists research and study.
Number 5
Transcript
Number five, one of the greatest achievements in medical technology was what, heart transplants, x-ray machines? Well you may be surprised that one of the most important steps forward was getting physicians to wash their hands and the fact that doctors realize the connection between germs and illness. The history of how this was discovered is quite interesting, so we'll touch on that slightly before getting into more scientific details about how modern hospitals work to ensure that everything in their environment is as clean as possible.
- A lack of cleanliness can cause illness in patients.
- The listening talks about how it was discovered that cleanliness is related to illness and what modern hospitals do to make sure they are clean enough.
Notice that the General Statement does not introduce a great deal of information and simply prepares the reader or listener for the Thesis Statement.
All Thesis Statements follow a similar pattern using noun clauses to introduce the main ideas. Noun clauses are a form of subordinate clause that begins with question words such as what, why, who or how and is often used in reported speech.
- The listening talks about how people's lives are affected by their left-handedness…
- The listening talks about what trophic relationships in a food chain are…
- The listening talks about how plants are helped by bees through the pollination of flowers…
- The listening talks about … what Sociobiologists research and study.
It's important that these are proper noun clauses, and not questions.
Review the Reading and Listening introductions you worked with previously. Over the next four weeks, these materials will be built each week in order to create a complete Reading and Listening. Similarly, you will be provided with a complete essay which uses the complete Reading and Listening as source material. Below is an example of an Introduction using those materials. Read it and see how the first and second sentences make up the General and Thesis Statements.
Contrast Between Chinese and Western Medicine
Chinese and Western cultures existed quite independently from each other in the past, and, as a result, many aspects of each have evolved such that they are quite different, especially in areas like medical systems. There are many contrasts between these two systems, but the majority involve first how patients' illnesses are viewed and diagnosed then what subsequent forms of treatment physicians use and what overall goals they have.
Exercise
Please open the exercise to continue.