INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION IN ESSAY WRITING

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION 

IN ESSAY WRITING

Because our argument’s introduction and conclusion are the first and last impression you will make on your readers, they require careful attention. Conclusions-whether a general closing or a specialized summary-are, of course, almost always composed late in the writing process, when you know exactly what it is your argument has concluded. Some writers compose introductions before they write the actual argument, but many delay until the last stage of the first draft, when they know more clearly what is to be introduced. This chapter discusses the importance of effective openings and closings and makes some suggestions for writing them.

1. INTRODUCTIONS

Because it is your readers’ initial experience with your argument, your introduction must be particularly appealing to them. Regardless of what form your introduction takes, it is the hook that draws your readers into your argument.

The style and content of your introduction will be influenced by our argument’s context (the occasion and audience for which it is written) and by its length, tone, and level of complexity. But no matter how you choose to open your argument, the basic purpose of any introduction is the same: to engage your readers. Usually an introduction succeeds in engaging readers if it is clear and inviting. Of these two features, clarity-the precise and accurate expression of carefully considered ideas-is probably the easiest to achieve, though for many writers it comes only with careful thought and considerable revision. To be inviting; your introduction must stimulate your readers’ interest, as well as arouse their curiosity about the rest of the argument. Since being inviting is, for most of us, a learned skill, we offer some strategies for writing engaging introductions.

A.    Strategies for General Introductions

1)      Introduction by Narrative

Writers of “general interest” arguments (nontechnical arguments intended for a broad audience) often gain their readers’ attention by opening their essay with a specific anecdote or short narrative. This kind of opening engages readers in two ways:

a.      In this narrative approach, it satisfies our delight in being told a story

b.      It gains our interest by its particularity-its details about people, place and events that give readers a firm footing as they enter an unknown test.

An essay entitled “Boring for Within,” by English professor Wayne C. Booth, begins with the following paragraph:

Last week I had for about the hundredth time an experience that always disturbs me. Riding on a train. I found myself talking with my seat-mate, who asked me what I did for a living. “I teach English.” Do you have any trouble predicting his response? His face fell, and h groaned, “Oh, dear, I’ll have to watch my language.” In my experience there are only two other possible reactions. The first is even less inspiring: “I hated English in school; it was my worst subject. “The second, so rare as to make an honest English teacher almost burst into tears of gratitude when it occurs, is an animated conversation about literature, or ideas, or the American language-the kind of conversation that shows a continuing respect for “English” as something more than being sure about who and whom, lie and lay.

Booth’s essay, addressed to high school English teachers, goes on to identify the ways in which English is miss-taught and to suggest alternative teaching methods as a renowned college professor addressing high school teachers about the problems of high school instruction. Both must be careful not to alienate his audience by coming across as superior or critical. He does this in part by opening the essay (initially an oral address) with this personal anecdote, which immediately, but tacitly, says “I am one of you.” As well as disarming his audience with the personal references, Booth captures their attention with the simultaneous specificity and universality of effective narrative.

2)      Introduction by Generalization

Good introductions can also begin with a strong, unambiguous generalization related to the readers’ experiences, as in the following opening paragraph of an article by David Brown published in a medical society journal:

Few honorable professions have as much inherent hostility toward one another as medicine and journalism. Ask a doctor to describe journalists and you are likely to hear adjectives such as “negative,” “sensationalistic,” and “superficial.” Ask a journalist about doctors, and you will probably hear about “arrogance,” “paternalism,” and “jargon.”

Broad statements such as this should be limited and developed in succeeding sentences or a succeeding paragraph. In the second paragraph of this essay, the writer both justifies and develops the generalization made in the first paragraph.

The descriptions are the common stereotypes and not wholly inaccurate, for the two professions occupy distant worlds. Physicians are schooled in confidence and collegiality; journalist seeks to make knowledge public. Physicians speak the language of science; journalists are largely ignorant of science. Physicians inhabit a world where time and audience require simplification. Physicians are used to getting their way; journalists are used to getting their story.

This paragraph’s development of the idea contained in the initial paragraph is echoed by the writer’s syntax (the arrangement of his words): the last four sentences, neatly divided by semicolons into opposing clauses, emphasize the focus on this professional opposition.

3)      Introduction by Quotation

Some introductions begin with quotations that are eventually connected to the topic of essay. While perhaps overused and over taught, this technique does work if practiced thoughtfully. The writer using an opening quotation must be sure that it can be made to apply to the subject in an interesting way, and that the quotation is interesting, provocative, or well written (preferably all there). The following paragraph in an essay by Marilyn Yalom is a successful example of this technique:

When Robert Browning wrote his famous lines “Grow old along with me!/The best is yet to be,/The last of life, for the first was made.” He was undoubtedly not thinking about women. The poet’s Victorian optimism is difficult enough to reconcile with the realities of old age for men, and virtually impossible when we consider the condition of older women in the nineteenth century.

As in the article about the antagonism between the medical and journalistic professions, the initial statement here is immediately explained and developed in the succeeding sentence. Here, in fact, the explanatory sentence is also the claim of this essay on the older woman in Victorian England and America.

4)      Other type of Introduction

There are a number of other strategies for making arguments inviting to your readers: startling statistics, a brief historical survey of the topic (which can have the same charm as the narrative introduction), a particularly startling or shocking statement (provided, of course, that it is relevant to the content of your argument), and even a direct announcement of the argument’s subject (as in “This is an article about bad writing”). Any of these tactics will work as long as it connects in some way with the body of the argument.

B.     Introductions in Professional Writing

Introductions written in a professional context according to established formats don’t need to be as inviting as the previous examples, largely because the readers of professional reports usually don’t have much choice about whether or not read a given report. Rather than trying go engage their readers, on-the-job writers are concerned about serving the needs of a known audience who will make some use of the report. In these cases, introductions are successful if they accurately represent the report’s content. Company policy often dictates the form of a preliminary summary: some companies require an initial outline, others an abstract, still others a summary reflecting both organization and content. When the form is not dictated, the most useful is a simple summary of organization and content.

Take as an example an analysis of problems in customer relations assigned to a customer service representative of a local grocery chain. In her report, the representative first identifies, describes, an documents the different conditions she has found to be damaging to good customer relations: inadequate customers check-cashing privileges, a time-consuming refund policy, impolite carryout personnel, and inaccurate advertising of sale prices. She then estimates the loss of business resulting from each problem. Finally, she recommends possible solutions to the problems she has identified. Hr report is clearly written and organized, but it is also lengthy and somewhat complex; it needs an introduction that will prepare its readers not only for the content of the report but also for the arrangement of its material. The preliminary summary will prepare readers for the sequence of the argument’s main points, an it will serve as a useful reference should the readers become confused while reading the full report.

Our customer service representative introduces her report with the following preliminary summary:

This report examines the recent quarterly decline in business at the seven Goodbelly stores. It attributes this loss of revenue to at least four remediable problems in the area of customer relation: 1) inadequate check-cashing privileges, 2) a time-consuming refund policy, 3) lack of concern for customers by carryout personnel, and 4) inaccurate advertising of sale prices. It is estimated that these difficulties may have cost Goodbelly’s as much as $300.000 in revenue in the past three months. This report concludes by recommending specific personnel and policy measures to be taken to ease these difficulties and to regain the lost business.

Without being painstakingly mechanical, this brief paragraph identifies the central claim of the report (that the decline in revenue is due to poor customer relations) and prepares the reader for the organization and content of the argument. While an introduction such as this one may not engage a reader who has neither an interest in nor an obligation to the company, its concise an accurate representation of the report’s content will be extremely useful to the obligate reader.

C.     General Suggestions About Introductions

Finally, you may find these general suggestions about writing introductions useful:

·         Try writing your introduction after you’ve written your first draft. Often, there’s no point in agonizing over a preliminary summary for professional report or a catchy introduction for a general interest argument before you know exactly how the argument is going to evolve. Even if you’re working from a detailed outline, your organization and content will change as you compose.

·         On those rare occasions when a catchy opening sentence or paragraph comes to you early, giving you a hold on the overall structure, tone, an style of your argument, don’t let this opening get away!

·         Don’t make your introduction too long. Even the most interesting, captivating introduction is going to seem silly if it’s twice as long as the argument itself. The turbot, variety of anglerfish, has a head that takes up half of its total body length an is one of the silliest looking fish on the planet. Don’t follow its example.

·         Make sure your introduction is truly representative of the entire argument. If you are writing a preliminary summary, be sure all the main points of the argument are covered in the introduction. In a less formal argument, don’t let your desire to be engaging lure you into writing an introduction that is stylistically or tonally inconsistent with the rest of the argument. In short, the opening paragraph should never look as if it has been tacked on merely to attack reader interest, with no through about its relationship to what follows. Rather, it should resemble an operatic overture, beautiful in its own right, but always preparing its audience for what is to follow.