Writing Introductions and Conclusions

Short, load-bearing, and then out of the way

• In a timed essay, every sentence spent on the introduction is a sentence not spent on evidence.
• Four of the six rubric points live in the body.
• So the introduction should do its job in two or three sentences and stop.

A timed introduction that starts with the history of everything leaves the body waiting outside.

A working introduction

• One sentence positioning the subject — enough context that the claim makes sense.
• One sentence stating a defensible thesis that responds to the prompt.
• Optionally one more, if the shape of your reasoning is genuinely load-bearing.

What to cut

• Cut the general opening — "Throughout history, humans have..." says nothing and costs a sentence.
• Cut the announcement of intent — "In this essay I will argue..." is a label, not an argument.
• Cut the definition of a word nobody disputes.

The conclusion worth writing

• Restate the thesis in language you could not have used in the introduction, because the argument had not been made yet.
• Or say what follows from it — its significance, or the wider question it belongs to.
• Either is stronger than a summary, and neither takes more than two sentences.

A test for both

• Delete your introduction and read from the first body paragraph. Is anything genuinely lost?
• Delete your conclusion and stop at the last body paragraph. Does it end or just stop?
• Whatever was genuinely lost is what those paragraphs should contain — and nothing else.

Write from an introduction of 3 sentences

• An introduction uses 3 sentences for the situation and the defensible thesis, and nothing else.
• A first draft had opened with 'since the dawn of time'.
• Say what to cut.