U2.

6: Introduction & Conclusion Brainstorming

All academic introductions should include a hook, general context and background to the topic, and your thesis. Fill out ALL boxes
below to plan out your introduction; this structure can be carried over directly to your essay draft.

INTRODUCTION WRITING
WORKING TITLE Riding Free Through Lana’s Concept of Freedom
Consider: key terms; topics and themes discussed; altering
cliches and common phrases; altering the artists’ lyrics.
Avoid full sentences for essay titles. See Week 11 Canvas
materials for more information.

HOOK Throughout her career, Lana Del Rey has been criticized for her sense of
Think broadly about your topic(s), BEYOND your music freedom and living life without worries or care.
video and artist.
Common Hooks: descriptive example; anecdote; pose a
question; provide a statistic or quote

CONTEXT ABOUT YOUR TOPIC & VIDEO On September 25th, 2012 Lana Del Rey released her first single ‘Ride’ from her
Provide general context to the topic (subject matter) of the EP: Paradise (2012), which became an extension of her first album ‘Born to Die.’
music video. This can include very basic history, The music video tells the story of a singer struggling trying to succeed through
background information, and/or definitions of terms. her career but living the best out of her life. She lives at her fullest and trusts in
the kindness of strangers and rides free through the open road.
Alternatively, you could consider other “voices” and
perspectives that help contextualize the music video, artist,
or musical genre in general, i.e. the “They Say.”
Remember, you can create a “background information”
paragraph later, so do not try to cram everything into your
intro.

TEXT SUMMARY
Introduce the specific music video you are going to
analyze. Provide a brief summary, no more than 2-3
sentences. Remember to name the artist(s) and song title.
Tip: assume your readers are not familiar with your video.
Lana Del Rey’s Ride Music Video shows the artist’s look at what freedom means
to her and her belief of the “country America used to be.” She shows this by using
many different aspects of life in the character she portrays through her ups and
downs.
Consider: what is the story/plot? What are the main
designs? (Color vs. black and white, animated vs. live
action, one-shot vs. multi-camera, etc.) Return to our Week
2 materials if you need refresh your memory on summary.

YOUR THESIS: This can be copied from U1.3 or U1.4!
You might revise further to remove repetition of the author’s
name and article title, or other revisions that help the
readability of your overall introduction.
Lana Del Rey’s “Ride” video employs instances of impulsive decision making,
trusting too easily, and a dark, dingy colors, and overall the idea of riding free in
the open road with the use of bicycles and men to explain that if one is open to
all of life’s highs and lows and lives life at their fullest with no worries or
concerns, they will be capable of experiencing true freedom.

There are also various approaches to writing conclusions; do not simply restate your thesis! The common approaches are outlined in
the table below. Write as much as you can, and try out ALL options to see which approach appeals to you most and works best with
your essay. You can decide which approach to use later, but you will never know what works until you try it out!

Only submissions that test out all four approaches below will receive full credit.

CONCLUSION WRITING
SO WHAT? WHO CARES? A lot of people criticize Del Rey’s work because she portrays living life recklessly
Why should your work matter to your readers? How your and she is very blunt with what she thinks and what she wants to put out. On the
evaluation and analysis affect those who may not other hand she has a large number of fans who love her for being open and not
necessarily be familiar with your topic, artist, and/or song? caring what other people or critics say about her work. People love the
confidence she has and that she speaks out her mind no matter what it is and
Note: this is not a review. Do not spend time trying to tells it how it is, which is something a lot of people find inspiring and to look up
“recommend” the artist or song. This is a chance for you to to.
move beyond the artist/song.

PERSONAL CONNECTION
Why did you choose this video in the first place? What have
you personally learned through this project? How has
conducting your research on this topic changed or affected
your outlook as a performer? As a communicator?
I have been a Lana fan for a very long time. Ride is one of my favorite music
videos by her among other ones. I was very excited to choose this music video
because I’ve never truly analyzed it deeply and her mind amazes me when it
comes to the way she portrays things and being different when it comes to her
music and videos. I now am more aware of details when it comes to videos and
have found things in other videos of hers that I did not notice in the past.
CALL TO ACTION / NEXT STEPS
What should readers do now that you’ve given them all this
information? What does the industry or other artists need to
do in response to your information?
REAL-WORLD CONNECTIONS
How can we connect your work to actual, real-world topics
and issues? In what ways does your topic make us think
differently about the world?
The readers might want to get into Lana and see what I am talking about with
their own eyes as well as learn to live life more freely, and not freely as being
reckless, but speaking your mind and not letting anything come between you
and your dreams.
A lot of people, such as myself, deal with anxiety and sometimes are afraid to
speak their minds when it comes to something being done unjust to them. My
work connects to the real world by giving people an extra push to not let anyone
or anything stop your progress and doing what needs to be done to get to your
goal. We all have up and downs in life but we have to learn to rise up and keep
going and to ride free no matter what.