Introductions and Conclusions

Goal: to gain creative techniques for writing introductions and conclusions, and to avoid the pitfalls of weak first and last paragraphs

Writing the first and last paragraph of a paper can seem like a daunting task. The trick is to take control by using strong writing skills and techniques, rather than reverting to bad writing habits. This page offers a toolbox of techniques that will help you feel empowered rather than intimidated by the introduction and conclusion.


Introduction Strategies: Framing the Argument
One bad habit that many student writers have is to start with information that is too general and too basic for an educated audience. The standard notion that an introduction should move from general to specific can lead to a generic, and therefore boring, opening.  Specific details are more compelling and are more appropriate for an academic audience.

Start with a relevant Anecdote/Example/Quotation:

Anecdote : An essay on the commercialization of hiphop in the late 1980s might begin with a story about a key moment during the negotiation of  one artist's multi-million dollar record deal. Make it clear to the readers why this anecdote is here.

Example : A paper on the connection between humor, anxiety, and sexuality might begin by citing a limerick and then showing how it illustrates this connection.

Quotation : An essay on Charlotte Perkins Gillman's use of gothic conventions in "The Yellow Wallpaper" might open by quoting a relevant passage.

Start with a relevant personal anecdote: For example, an essay that discusses innovative strategies for improving parent-child relationships might begin by recounting an innovative strategy that your parents used when you were a child; or it might start by recounting a traditional strategy that failed.  You should explicitly show how the anecdote you use proves or relates to your thesis.

Cite an authority who agrees with you: And then show how your thesis echoes and/or builds upon this work. Choose the quotation carefully; it should be one that articulates the authority's thesis in a compact and compelling way.

Cite an authority who disagrees with you: And then show how your work corrects this misunderstanding. Again, choose the quotation carefully.  The authority's position should be one that is  widely held or influential, or else there is no reason to refute it.

Open with a startling fact/claim: A paper on colleges' failure to tell parents about campus crime might begin with surprising statistics about rapes and/or assaults that occurred at  colleges recently.

Start with an interesting/unusual question: A paper on the negative health effects on sugar might begin: "What would the health of American children be like if the Food and Drug Administration had banned sugar as an addictive drug?"

Typical Introduction Problems:
Avoid introduction clichés: "in today's society," "a hotly debated issue," "a controversial topic." Speak in your own voice; when you use these clichés, you present yourself as an unimaginative writer.  Given that your professors will get many essays that begin this way (or include these phrases in the introduction), why use a cliché if it might bias them against your paper?

Avoid an introduction so general it could begin any paper on the topic.  For example, if the assignment calls for you to analyze a song lyric, don't begin: " Songwriters write lyrics to communicate their feelings or beliefs about many topics. They can write songs of romance, or pain, or  relationships with close friends, or other important topics." 

Conclusion Strategies: Reframing the Argument

For many writers, the conclusion is one of the most difficult parts of an essay. We are often told not to introduce a new topic in the 
conclusion, and while this warning is generally a good one, it can be misleading—it might lead a writer to feel that she has no choice but to repeat herself by restating the introduction.

Show the Relevancy of Your Argument/Make a Call for Action:
If we write an essay on the dangers of sugar, our conclusion could talk about new ways for parents to feed their children. This conclusion would be especially useful if we began as suggested above: since a ban is not going to be enacted (the question is a rhetorical one), readers will want to know the relevancy of your argument to their lives.

Show the Tangible/Conceptual Consequences of Your Argument: A paper about norms of masculinity might conclude by showing the tangible consequences that such ideas will continue to have for men (and/or for women) 
if we fail to change this way of understanding gender.

Conclude with a relevant anecdote/example/passage: Reframe the argument in terms of an anecdote/example/passage that proves your thesis and/or shows its relevancy.

Conclude with a relevant personal anecdote: Reframe the argument in terms of a short, personal story/incident that proves your thesis
          and/or shows its relevancy.

Cite an authority who disagrees with you: And then show how the essay that we have just read corrects this misunderstanding.   Again, the idea should be one that is widely believed, or there is no reason to refute it.

Typical Conclusion Problems:
Avoid beginning your conclusion with clichés: "In sum," "In conclusion," "To conclude"

Avoid ending your conclusion with clichés: "And thus, just like Jim and Huck, all of us, black and white, need to learn to live together." "Will parents ever stop allowing their children to consume so much sugar? Only time will tell."

Instructions: Using some of the techniques listed here, write a sample introduction and conclusion for your current paper.

Helpful Links: Handouts from Other Writing Programs
Check out the following links to see what tutors from other college writing centers around the country are saying about introductions and conclusions:

Introductions
Bellevue Community College (WA) - http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/writinglab/Thesis.html
MIT - http://web.mit.edu/writing/Writing_Types/introstrategies.html
Purdue University - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/writeintro.html
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/wc_web/school/introduction.htm
San Jose State University (CA) - http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/english/foropen.htm
Sonoma State University (CA) - http://www.sonoma.edu/programs/writingcenter/pdf_files/intro.pdf
St. Cloud State University (MN) - http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/intro.html
Taft College (Taft, CA) - http://www.taft.cc.ca.us/newTC/Academic/LiberalArts/OWL/INTRO.HTML
University of Central Florida - http://www.uwc.ucf.edu/Writing Resources/Handouts/introductions.htm
University of North Carolina - http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/introductions.htm
University of Richmond - http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/intros.html

Conclusions
Capital Community College (Hartford, CT) - http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/endings.htm
Harvard University - http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Conclusions.html
Purdue University - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/conclude.html
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/wc_web/school/conclusion.htm
Sonoma State University (CA) - http://www.sonoma.edu/programs/writingcenter/pdf_files/conc.pdf
St. Cloud State University (MN) - http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html
University of Central Florida - http://www.uwc.ucf.edu/Writing Resources/Handouts/conclusion_ideas.htm
University of North Carolina - http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/conclusions.html
University of Richmond - http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conclude.html