10 Introductions & Conclusions

When to Write

I highly recommend that you wait to write your introduction and conclusion until you are fairly close to done with the body of the essay. Many students feel like they should start with the introduction because it comes first in the essay, but it’s often easier to write once you have a clearer idea of what, exactly, you are introducing! Also, the introduction and conclusion work best when they resonate with each other, and that’s easier to accomplish when you write them together.

Introductions

Introductions are your opportunity to invest your audience in your essay. In academic work, people are typically reading because 1) they already care about the topic and/or 2) they need the information contained in the text for some reason. That means there’s less pressure to “grab” the audience right away, but you still want them to feel positive and excited about reading your work. The main way you accomplish that is by establishing the importance of your topic, tapping into kairos and pathos (see Classical Rhetorical Theory for more details). A good introduction gives the audience of a sense of the “so what?” regarding your topic; after reading the introduction, they should know why this topic is interesting or controversial, and why they should care about it.

The standard format for introductions to academic essays is pretty formulaic:

• Introduce the issue of the argument
• Establish the relevance/significance/timeliness of the issue (kairos and pathos)
• Provide any necessary background or context your readers may need
• Close with your thesis statement

In most short essays, your introduction will probably be a single paragraph, and those first two bullet points may even be covered in a single sentence, but keep in mind that each piece of a closed-form structure can be scaled up or down to suit the overall length of the text. When you read published works, especially scholarly ones, you’ll find that introductions are more often multiple paragraphs, although the basic sequence of the above bullet points is typically the same.

You should also be aware that, although the most common form of introduction closes with the thesis, some essay structures (uncreatively called “delayed thesis” essays) don’t provide the thesis until later – sometimes not even until the very end of the essay. However, unless you are certain your instructor will allow that or you’ve been explicitly assigned to do it that way, you should probably plan to include your thesis statement at the end of your introduction.

No Hook?

You may have been taught in the past to include a catchy hook at the beginning of your essay, and that is technically an option. However, hooks of that style are actually pretty uncommon in academic writing, and they can be risky. It’s better to have no hook at all than one that will register to your readers as juvenile or trite. Avoid these overdone strategies:

• The “have you ever” rhetorical question
• The dictionary definition
• The random quote that only vaguely relates to the topic (or worse, has been misattributed to someone who never said it!)

Conclusions

Conclusions are, in my opinion, the most challenging pieces to write. You need to somehow bring the essay to a close without being redundant but also without adding new material, and that’s a difficult task. The key ideas for a conclusion are closure and meaning. The reader needs to feel they have reached the end, so a conclusion shouldn’t introduce new details, but you also want to avoid just repeating things you’ve already said. Instead, a good conclusion leaves the audience with an answer to “so what now?” They have read your essay and presumably see your point; where do things go from here?

Unlike with introductions, there is no clear pattern or model for closed-form conclusions. However, there are a few strategies that you can usually mix-and-match, depending on what makes sense for your essay.

• Briefly reiterate the main point of the essay. (Do not repeat the thesis exactly, and don’t dwell on the supporting ideas, especially for a short essay. It starts to feel redundant.)
• Connect the point you made to its larger significance. How does seeing things your way help the audience have a better, more accurate understanding of the topic?
• Discuss next steps:
  • What could or should the audience do with what they have learned from you?
  • What parts of the topic could use more research or discussion, and why?

A good way to help the essay feel “complete” after the conclusion is to refer back to what you wrote in the introduction to establish the topic and its significance. See if you can echo those same ideas in your conclusion.

Examples

Read the example introduction/conclusion pairs below and see if you can identify how they follow the patterns described above. Can you find elements that could be made stronger?

Example #1

Introduction

In the era of streaming entertainment, the traditional movie theater business model faces an existential crisis. As media conglomerates like Netflix and Disney build their own streaming platforms, a growing number of new films are premiering at home rather than having a theatrical release. This shift raises questions about the future viability of cinemas and moviegoing as a cultural experience. While streaming offers unparalleled convenience and affordability for consumers, the theatrical experience remains invaluable for films as an art form and communal event meriting preservation in the digital age.

Conclusion

Though the movie theater business faces intense pressures from the streaming revolution, the theatrical experience is simply too culturally vital to be abandoned entirely. Viewing a quality film in the singular setting of a theater, surrounded by fellow audience members, allows the magic of the cinematic art form to be fully realized and appreciated in a way streaming can never replicate. To uphold this tradition, theater companies must innovate with upgraded sight and sound, diversified programming, and enhanced hospitality that provides moviegoers an experience transcending just watching content on a small screen. While streaming will certainly remain dominant for convenience, the art of film demands a premium viewing platform – the theater – be kept alive and evolved for modern audiences to enjoy movies as they were meant to be seen.

Example #2

Introduction

Incentivizing student performance has become a controversial strategy in the ongoing quest to improve educational outcomes. While monetary rewards like cash payments for good grades or test scores seem intuitively motivating, research has cast doubt on the effectiveness of this approach, especially for adolescents. A recent study highlighted in Matthew Springer’s article “What Gets Students Motivated to Work Harder? Not Money” from The Conversation found that offering middle school students $100 for attending tutoring sessions had negligible impact. In contrast, students who received a simple, low-cost certificate of recognition from the superintendent saw dramatic increases in tutoring attendance. Springer explains that the counterintuitive finding challenges traditional economic assumptions and underscores the complex psychological and social factors influencing student behaviors. Although the study offers some interesting food for thought, Springer oversimplifies the findings and is too quick to dismiss the use of monetary incentives.

Conclusion

While Springer makes a fair point that non-monetary incentives like recognition awards should not be overlooked, he goes too far in using this single study to argue against financial rewards altogether. Rather than taking an either/or approach, schools and policymakers should view monetary and non-monetary incentives as complementary tools. Combining public recognition and social esteem factors like certificates with financial rewards could potentially amplify the motivational effects. Furthermore, incentive programs should be tailored not just to the developmental level but the specific circumstances, cultures, and needs of different student populations. Ultimately, more extensive research looking at how various incentive structures influence behaviors across age groups and demographic factors is still needed.