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Introductions, Theses and Conclusions
Chapter Guide
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Writing Introductions
The introduction to an essay orients readers to your topic. It is your first opportunity to interest them and to give them the context needed to understand your assertions. There are many introductory strategies; you will see the most common strategies used over and over again.
- Quotation—Use well-phrased remarks to set the context and to "hook" your reader. Be careful not to let the quoted material overshadow your voice. Quote only what you need to make your point clear.
- Historical Review—Some readers will be unprepared to follow the issue you discuss without some background information. Give readers enough information to get started, but don't allow your background to become excessive to the point of distraction.
- Review of a Controversy—Give readers a brief overview of the opposing sides of an issue.
- From the General to the Specific—Provide a transition for readers by moving from a general discussion of your topic to a more specific aspect of it.
- From the Specific to the General with Anecdotes or Illustrations—Begin with an anecdote or illustration related to your topic before going into a general discussion of it.
- Question—Begin with a provocative question or series of questions to get your audience involved with your topic.
- Statement of Thesis—Begin by stating the thesis in the first sentence of your essay.
Writing a Thesis
The thesis is a one-sentence summary of a paper's content. It is an assertion that you wish to make about your essay's topic. You will need to work with your thesis until it fits the parameters of the assignment and allows you to accomplish your purpose in writing the essay. Because you might not know exactly what to assert when you first begin your essay, you should start with a working thesis and refine as you go. As you narrow your thesis, you will also narrow your topic. Keep asking yourself the following questions as you proceed:
- Who?
- What aspects?
- Where?
- When?
- How?
You might want to begin with a question. During the writing process, you will probably discover the answer to the question that you posed. The answer to your question should be an assertion about your topic. You can narrow and polish your working thesis by writing different assertions for your topic. Thesis statements can be explanatory, mildly argumentative, or strongly argumentative, depending on your purpose for writing and the scope of the task. Eventually, you will narrow your topic and your thesis to something that is manageable.
Writing Conclusions
The conclusion serves as a bridge from the world of your essay back to the world of your reader. Your conclusion should do the following:
- Restate the thesis.
- Summarize your main points.
- Connect your assertion to the world outside the essay.
In discussing the significance of your essay, you can use several strategies:
- State the subject's significance.
- Call for further research on the topic.
- Provide solutions and recommendations.
- Relate an anecdote (this is most effective when it is tied to an anecdote in the introduction).
- Quote a famous person or an expert on your topic.
- Pose a question.
- Speculate on what might happen in the future.
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