Introductions and Conclusions Revisited
The same two positions, with an argument behind you
- Unit 4 covered what an introduction and conclusion may do.
- By Unit 7 you have written several arguments, and the question changes.
- It is no longer what these paragraphs can do but which job this argument needs from them.
Choosing the introduction's job
- If the reader will doubt you, use the opening to introduce the writer and earn standing.
- If the topic is unfamiliar, use it to establish context.
- If the reader knows the subject but not why it is urgent, establish the exigence.
If the reader has reason to doubt you, use the opening to introduce the ____.
Earning standing early is one of the introduction's permitted jobs.
Match each reader obstacle to the introduction's job.
The obstacle chooses the job, exactly as it does for methods of development.
Choosing the conclusion's job
- Present the thesis in its earned form when the argument has changed what the claim means.
- Explain its significance when the reader may accept the claim and not see why it matters.
- Situate it in a broader context when the argument belongs to a larger question.
Which job did this ending choose?
Match each conclusion to the permitted job it does.
Select all the jobs the CED permits a conclusion.
There is no permitted job of apologising for the essay's limits.
A conclusion that could have opened the essay has not been earned. Summary fails this test automatically — it is available before a word is written, which is precisely why it uses the most memorable position for the least new information.
A conclusion that only restates the essay has used its position well.
It uses the most memorable position for the least new information.
Reading an ending closely
- Ask which of the three permitted jobs the conclusion actually chose.
- A conclusion that situates the argument more broadly is claiming the issue is bigger than the text.
- A conclusion that only restates has left the most memorable position unused.
The test for whether a conclusion has been earned is...
Summary fails automatically — it is available before the essay is written.
Making the ending earn its place
- Write the last sentence you could not have written first.
- That test rules out summary automatically, because a summary is available before the essay is written.
- If your conclusion could have opened the essay, it has not been earned.
"The scheme is not failing to measure its success; it is succeeding at measuring the wrong thing." That sentence needed the whole essay to become sayable — which is exactly why it works as an ending and could not have worked as an opening.
By Unit 7 the question is which job this argument needs. Choose the introduction's job from the reader's obstacle — doubt, unfamiliarity, or not seeing the urgency — and the conclusion's from the three permitted. Test the ending: could it have opened the essay?