The purpose of an introduction is to bring your readers up to speed on the information they will need to literally be “on the same page” with you as you move on to analyze specific books and why they were banned. Give some background information necessary for understanding the essay. Assume your readers know nothing about Freedoms of speech and censorship. Provide necessary definitions for important concepts.
To begin, you may use a brief narrative or anecdote that exemplifies your reason for writing about the topic. In a research essay, the narrative may illustrate a common real-world scenario (about half a page)
provide a historical context to the problem of censorship by educating your readers about the ideas presented in Milton’s Areopagitica , John Mill Stuart’s Liberty , and the Constitution (about 2 pages)
Finally, conclude the introduction by describing how the ideas of these writers and the first amendment clash with the banning and censorship of books (about half a page)
