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.
- 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.
