Introductions And Conclusions

Introductions and Conclusions

Introductions are difficult to write, so don’t worry about writing an effective opening when you are drafting. Just get some words down on paper, and keep going. But when you revise your first draft (from now on) you probably should begin to think seriously about the effect of your opening.

A good intro arouses the reader’s interest and helps prepare the reader for the rest of the paper. How? Opening paragraphs usually do at least one (and often all) of the following:

1. Attract the reader’s interest, often with a bold statement of the thesis or with an interesting statistic, quotation, or anecdote;

2. Prepare the reader’s mind by giving some idea of the topic and often of the thesis;

3. Give the reader an idea of how the essay is organized;

4. Define a key term.

Conclusions can have two meanings:

1. ending, or finish, as the ending of a joke or a novel; or,

2. judgment or decision reached after deliberation.

Your essay should finish effectively (the first sense), but it need not announce a judgment (the second).

If the essay is fairly short, so that a reader can more or less keep the whole thing in mind, you may not need to restate your view.

What’s the goal of a conclusion—ending with a note of finality. Writer’s often provide a sense of closure by using one of the following devices:

1. A return to something in the introduction;

2. A glance at the wider implications of the issue;

3. An anecdote that engagingly illustrates the thesis;

4. Or, a brief summary (for longer works).